THE 

'  EMPIRE 

OF  THE  MOTIIERj 

1     ' 

OVER 

1                                                              • 

THE    CHARACTER    AND    DESTINY 

i 

OK    TIIK    RACE. 

1 

By     H 

.Vuthi.rof   •  Marriogt  and  PareiiMgp,"  "tVp  Unwelcome  Child.     -A  Kin*  for  a  HI..*,- 
1                                   "The  Sclf-Abiie^..rionist.  or  Enrtli's  True  King  and  Quee»." 

1 

!                                        The  Health  of  Woman  — the  Hope  of  the  World. 

1 

SECOND    EDITION. 

1 

BOSTON: 

!        PUBLISHED   BY 

BELA    MARSH,  14   BROMFIEI.D   STREET.      i 

1866.                                                            j 

.  1 

^ 


3    Tli53    DD273MSD 


I 

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s6 


THE 


EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER 


THE   CHARACTER  AND   DESTINY 
OF  THE   RACE. 


By    henry     C.    WRIGHT, 

Author  of  "  Marriage  and  Parentage,"  "The  rnwolcoino  Child,"  "A  Kiss  for  a  Blow," 
"Tlic  Self- Abnegation ist,  or  Earth's  True  King  aud  Queen." 


The  TIcaUh  of  Woman  — the  Hope  of  the  Worhl, 


SECOND    EDITION. 


BOSTON:. 

PUBLISHED  BY  BELA  MARSH,  U  BROMFIELD  STREET. 
1866. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1803,  by 

IlENRV  C.  Wright, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  tlie  District  of  Massachusetts. 


Stereotj'pcd  at  tlie  Boston  Stereotype  Foundry, 
No.  4  Spring  Lane. 


PREFACE. 


In  considering  Man  and  his  Destiny,  I  viewhim  in  three  -states ; 
(1)  in  that  which  intervenes  between  conception  and  birth,  Avhich  I 
call  his  pre-natal  state ;  (2)  in  that  which  intervenes  between  his 
birth  and  the  death  of  his  body,  which  I  call  his  post-natal  state ; 
(3)  and  in  that  which  begins  at  the  death  of  the  body,  and  never 
ends,  which  I  call  his  disembodied  state  ;  or,  his  life  2cifhin  the  veil. 

The  following  pages  relate  to  the  first,  or  pre-natal  state.  Efforts, 
whose  object  is  to  secure  to  man  a  healthy  and  vigorous  body,  and 
a  pure  and  noble  soul,  generally  refer  to  man  in  his  second  or  post- 
natal state.  Religions  generally  look  at  man  with  reference  to  his 
third  or  disembodied  state.  Systems  of  Education,  of  Government, 
and  EeHgion,  have  assumed  that  nothing  can  be  done  for  human 
beings,  to  save  them  from  physical  disease  and  suffering,  from  vice 
and  crime,  and  from  tendencies  to  evil,  previous  to  birth.  Among 
Ministers  of  Religion,  Legislators,  and  Rulers ;  among  Poets  and 
Orators,  and  those  who,  in  all  ages  and  nations,  have  been  received 
as  divinely  commissioned,  and  sent  to  secure  to  man  a  healthy  body, 
a  strong  and  comprehensive  intellect,  a  pure  and  loving  heart,  a  just 
and  noble  character,  and  a  happy  destiny,  and  to  save  the  world,  no 
regard  has  been  paid  to  what  is  done,  or  might  and  must  be  done 
for  man,  for  good  or  evil,  before  he  is  born.    • 

But  as  soon  as  he  is  born,  then  man  becomes  an  object  of  inter- 
est to  parents,  teachers,  and  reformers,  and  to  social,  commercial. 


4-  PREFACE. 

literary,  ecclesiastical,  and  governmental  institutions.  The  pre-natal 
state  has  been  ignored,  generally,  by  the  family,  the  school,  the  col- 
lege, the  pulijit,  and  the  press,  and  by  the  Church  and  State,  and 
regarded  as  of  no  account  in  its  bearing  on  human  character  and 
destiny  in  the  post-natal  and  disembodied  states. 

In  this  work  I  have  aimed  to  show  that  the  period  between  the 
conception  and  birth  of  human  beings,  as  to  the  formation  of  their 
character  and  the  control  of  their  destiny,  after  they  are  born,  is 
the  most  important  period  of  their  existence  ;  that  what  is  done  for 
them  in  the  pre-natal  state,  while  theii-  organic  conditions  and  ten- 
dencies are  being  formed  and  fixed,  bears  more  directly  and  power- 
fully on  their  health  and  happiness  of  body  and  soul,  than  what  is 
done  for  them  after  they  are  born. 

The  life  and  happiness  of  individuals,  the  love  and  harmony  of 
families,  the  prosperity  and  stability  of  states  and  kingdoms,  and 
the  protection  of  life,  liberty,  and  person,  are  more  dependent  on 
influences  that  bear  upon  human  beings  before  birth,  than  on  any 
influence  that  can  be  brought  to  bear  on  them  afterwards.  What  is 
organized  into  us  in  oiu*  pre-natal  state,  is  of  more  consequence  to 
us,  and  more  vital  to  our  triumph  over  the  temptations  and  obsta^ 
cles  that  impede  our  progress  towards  perfection  and  happiness, 
than  what  is  educated  into  us,  after  we  are  born. 

The  Pre-natal  Education  of  Man  !  The  Mother,  the  God- 
appointed  Educator  !  The  one  great  object  of  this  book  is  to 
call  attention  to  these  subjects.  I  do  not  forget  the  power  of  the 
father  in  the  work  of  pre-natal  education.  It  cannot  be  otherwise 
than  great.  The  impressions  made  upon  the  body  and  soul  of  the 
child,  through  his  agency  brought  to  bear  on  the  feelings  and  sym- 
pathies of  the  mother,  must  be  deep  and  abiding.  But  my  object 
is  to  call  attention  to  the  Empire  of  the  Mother,  to  show  the  extent 
of  her  power,  and  how  it  is  exerted. 

If  the  ideas  put  forth  in  this  work  be  true,  they  will,  in  the 
future,  greatly  modify  the  penal  codes  and  establishments  and  civil 


PREFACE.  5 

governments  of  the  world,  and  will  deeply  affect  the  discipline  of 
children,  in  families  and  schools.  Humanity  will  revolt  against 
punishing  children  for  being  like  their  parents,  and  for  being  and 
doing  what  their  parents  made  them  to  be  and  to  do.  It  will  be 
regarded  as  a  wrong  and  an  outrage  for  parents  to  organize  lying, 
revenge,  cruelty,  and  every  crime  into  children,  and  then  punish 
them  for  acting  them  out.  It  will  be  found  to  surpass  the  inge- 
nuity and  power  of  man,  to  reconcile  with  love  and  sympathy  for 
the  true  and  right,  the  idea  of  conceiving  human  beings  in  sin,  and 
shaping  them  in  iniquity,  and  predisposing  them  to  evil  in  their 
pre-natal  state,  and  then  punishing  them  for  being  sinners  and  evil- 
doers in  their  post-natal  state.  An  innate  sense  of  justice,  and  an 
instinctive  reverence  for  fair  deahng,  —  all  that  is  Divine  in  Humaa 
Nature,  will  cry  out  against  the  practice  of  organizing  theft,  rob- 
bery, and  murder  into  men  before  they  are  born,  and  then  im- 
prisoning or  hanging  them  for  becoming  thieves,  robbers,  and 
murderers  after^  they  are  born.  Loving  discipline,  not  vindictive 
punishment,  will  be  the  spirit  and  practice  of  governments  in  their 
dealings  with  the  victims  of  parental  ignorance  and  outrage. 

They,  whose  organic  tendencies  are  to  bodily  health  and  vigor, 
are  not  apt  to  estimate  truly  the  conduct  of  those  whose  tendencies 
are  to  bodily  disease  and  suffering.  They,  who  are  blest  with  an 
innate  tendency  to  truth,  to  honesty,  love,  forgiveness,  and  to  all 
purity  and  nobleness  of  heart  and  life,  are  but  ill-qualified  to  sit  in 
judgment  on  those  who  have  an  inherited  tendency  to  falsehood, 
dishonesty,  wrath,  revenge,  and  to  all  impurity  and  viciousness*  of 
heart  and  life.  He,  in  whose  soul  upicard  tendencies  are  strong 
and  active,  and  ever  triumphant,  can  hardly  appreciate  the  strug- 
gles of  him  whose  birthright  tendencies  to  drunkenness,  to  profli- 
gacy, and  to  every  degrading  and  brutahzing  passion  and  habit, 
predominate  over  all  that  is  true  and  noble  within  him.  Pity  for 
the  unfortunate  will  oft  touch  the  heart  now  filled  with  indignation 
for  the  designedly  guilty.     The  prayer,  "  Father,  forgive  them  ;  they 


6  PREFACE. 

know  not  what  they  do,"  will  no  longer  be  merely  the  prayer  of  the 
lips,  but  the  abiding  spirit  of  the  heart  and  life. 

If  the  positions  taken  in  the  following  pages  be  true,  the  Health 
of  Woman,  in  its  bearing  on  the  destiny  of  the  race,  will,  in  the 
world's  future,  be  regarded  as  of  transcendent  importance,  and  as 
deserving  the  special  attention  of  all  who  seek  the  elevation  and 
happiness  of  man,  and  his  progress  in  all  goodness. 

But,  leaving  these  subjects  to  those  who  are  to  come  after,  and 
who  shall  earnestly  labor,  by  a  war  of  ideas,  rather  than  by  a  war 
of  bullets,  to  purify  and  ennoble  man,  I  ask  that  the  positions  I 
have  taken  be  carefully  and  candidly  considered  before  they  are  con- 
demned. If  they  are  erroneous,  they  cannot  stand ;  if  true,  they 
cannot  be  safely  neglected.  "  Prove  all  things,  and  hold  fast 
THAT  WHICH  "  (in  your  view)  "  IS  good." 

HENRY    C.  WRIGHT. 

Boston,  August  3, 1863. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

CHAPTER  I.  —  A  Man  of  One  Idea.  The  Elevation  and 
Happiness  of  Man.  —  God  seen  and  worshipped  in  Man,  his 
most  perfect  Manifestation 9-17 

CHAPTER  H.  —  Man  as  the  Result  of  Human  Agency. 
As  to  Existence,  Organization,  Character,  and  Destiny.  — 
Forest  Scene.  —  AVho  is  responsible  for  the  Existence,  Or- 
ganization, and  Destiny  of  Children  ? 18-28 

CHAPTER  HI. —  Our  Saviour  is  Born  with  us.  An 
Inborn  Saviour.  —  Self-Redemption.  —  Definition  of  the 
Healing  Art 29-37 

CHAPTER  IV. — Destiny  determined  by  Organization. 

Physical  Destiny  determined  by  Physical  Organization.     .  38-47 

CHAPTER  V.  —  Destiny  determined  by  Organization. 
Psychical  Destiny  determined  by  Psychical  Conditions. — 
Intellectual  Powers.  —  AfFectional  and  Sympathetic  Pow- 
ers.—  Passions  and  Appetites.  —  The  Destiny  of  the  Soul 
determined  by  its  Organic  Conditions  and  Innate  Tenden- 
cies   48-61 

CHAPTER  VI.  —  Organization  determined  by  Mater- 
nal Conditions.  Influences  of  Home.  —  Of  Social  Re- 
lations. —  Of  Occupations,  Amusements,  and  Political 
Relations.  —  Of  Climate,  Soil,  and  Material  Surroundings. 

—  Organic  Tendency  to  Useful  Labor.  —  The  Child  Visitor. 

—  Maternal  Associations 62-71 

CHAPTER  VII.  —Organic  Existence —Where  formed  ? 
Begun  and  completed  in  the  Organism  of  the  Mother.  — 
The  Organism  of  AVoman  to  be  tenderly  cherished  and 
reverenced  by  the  Husband,  the  Father,  the  Brother.  — 
Materials  to  form  the  Human  Organism,  Body  and  Soul, 
derived  from  this  Planet.  —  Woman  is  commissioned  of 
God  to  gather  them  up  and  put  them  together 72-81 


8  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VIII.  —  The  Human  Organism  —  Whence 
ITS  Materials  ?  From  the  Mother's  Blood.  —  Body 
and  Soul  derived  from  the  same  Source.  —  The  Mother's 
Power  to  say  of  Avhat  Materials  the  Body  and  Soul  shall 
be  fornjed,  the  same  as  she  has  to  say  of  what  Materials 
her  own  Blood  shall  be  formed.  —  The  Health  of  Woman. 
—  Its  bearing  on  the  Character  and  Destiny  of  Individ- 
uals, States,  and  Kingdoms 82-91 

CHAPTER  IX.  —  Inhemted  Maternal  Conditions. 
Whatever  Diseases  are  in  the  Mother's  Blood  must  be 
organized  into  her  Child.  —  Physical  Conditions  of  the 
Mother,  the  Psychical  Conditions  of  the  Child.  —  So  of 
Psychical  Conditions  of  the  Mother.  —  An  Authenticated 
Fact.  — Another  Fact 92-98 

CHAPTER  X.  —  The  Mother  as  a  Lawgiver.  Man 
under  Fixed  Laws.  —  The  Mother,  under  God,  enacts 
those  Laws.  —  Her  Laws  are  not  arbitrary  and  capricious, 
but  ever  fixed,  and  ever  the  same.  —  Her  Laws  are  Im- 
partial, bearing  on  all  ahke.  —  Her  Kmpire  is  Internal. — 
Sovereignty  of  the  Race  invested  in  the  Mother.  .     .     .     99-106 

CHAPTER  XL  — The  Mother  as  a  Teacher  and  a 
Priest.  The  College  at  which  I  graduated.  —  My  Alma 
Mater.  —  The  College  of  the  Race.  —  Pre-Natal  Educa- 
tion of  Man.  —  The  Science  of  Maternity.  —  The  High 
Priest  of  the  Race 107-111 

CHAPTER  XIL  —  The  Mother  as  a  Prophet.  Ex- 
periences of  the  Mother  during  Pre-Xatal  Life  of  Child, 
a  Prophecy  of  its  Post-X^atal  Character  and  Destiny.  — 
Pre-X"atarLife  of  X^apoleon.  —  Murder,  and  other  Crimes, 
Organized  into  Children.  —  The  Character  and  Destiny 
of  Jesus  foretold  by  his  Mother 112-117 

CHAPTER  XIII. — The  Mother  as  a  Messiah.  Health 
is  Heaven ;  Disease  is  Hell.  —  AVe  find  what  we  carry.  — 
Three  facts  touching  the  Human  Organism  —  A  Natural 
Saviour.  —  The  Gospel  of  Generation.  —  The  Gospel  of 
Regeneration.  —  God  and  Heaven  Organized  into  Chil- 
dren   118-125 

CHAPTER  XIV.  —  The  Triumph  of  Reason  and  Con- 
science. Parental  Instinct  held  in  Abeyance  to  Justice 
and  Right.  —  Parents  cursing  Children  with  their  Phys- 
ical Diseases  and  their  Tendencies  to  Evil.  —  A  Just  and 
Noble  Woman  refusing  to  become  a  Mother,  lest  she 
should  curse  her  Child  with  Scrofula 126-132 


THE  EMPIRE  OE  THE  MOTHER. 


CHAPTER    I, 


A  MAN  OF  ONE  IDEA. 

I  am  a  man  of  one  idea.  I  liave  lived  for  one  object,  and 
only  for  one.  What  is  that  one  idea  so  long  and  so  rever- 
ently cherished  ?  What  that  one  object  so  long  and  earnestly 
pursued? 

THE    ELEVATION    AND    HAPriNESS    OF    MAN. 

This  has  been  my  life-long  object  of  pursuit ;  this,  the 
one  controlling  idea  of  my  life.  In  arraying  myself  against 
opinions  and  practices  that  are  consecrated  and  made  vener- 
able by  age,  and  by  the  character  and  standing  of  those  who 
liave  embraced  and  pursued  them,  I  have  acted  with  a  single 
eye  to  this  great  end ;  rejecting  all  opinions  and  opposing  all 
usages  which,  in  my  view,  tend  to  degrade  man.  Truth 
can  degrade  no  man.  Right  can  dishonor  no  man.  What- 
ever is  true  in  principle  and  right  in  practice  must,  of 
necessity,  tend  to  elevate  and  ennoble  all  who  adopt  and 
live  it.  In  adopting  any^uew  idea  or  practice,  one  single 
thought  has  controlled  me,  i.  e..  Will  it  tend  to  purify  and 
ennoble,  in  myself  and  others,  the  nature  I  bear?  Truth 
1 


10  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

and  Right  must  ever  produce  this  result ;  Error  and  Wrong 
cannot. 

When  it  is  asked,  "What  is  the  chief  end  of  man?"  my 
answer  is,  and  ever  has  been  —  to  perfect  the  nature  he  bears, 
and  to  enjoy  that  perfected  nature  forever.  All  my  thoughts 
and  feelings,  all  my  plans  and  purposes,  all  my  interior  and 
exterior  life  centre  in  this  one  idea  —  the  perfection  and 
HAPPINESS  OF  HUMAN  NATURE.  To  eunoble  the  human 
type ;  to  develop  perfectly  all  the  capabilities  of  Human 
Nature  ;  to  make  man  all  he  is  designed  to  be  ;  and,  in  this 
state,  to  present  to  the  world  a  more  perfect  type  of  man- 
hood and  womanhood ;  to  this  end  it  is  glorious  to  live,  and 
gain  to  die. 

It  is  said  —  "  The  chief  end  of  man  is  to  glorify  God,  and 
enjoy  him  forever."  My  answer  is-'— the  only  way  in  which 
we  can  glorify  God  and  enjoy  him  is,  to  glorify  the  nature 
given  us,  and  to  be  happy  in  the  possession  of  that  glorified 
nature.  To  look  after  the  nature  we  possess,  body  and  soul ; 
to  purify  and  perfect  it,  and  enlarge  its  capabilities  for  hap- 
piness, and  to  enjoy  that  perfected  nature  ;  this  is  the  one 
sole  end  of  our  existence,  as  men  and  women.  I  speak  to 
all  of  human  kind ;  my  message  is  to  the  race  ;  our  sole 
end  of  existence  is  to  develop  the  nature  we  bear,  to  its 
highest  possible  extent,  and  make  it  as  beautiful  and  grand 
as  it  is  capable  of  being.  In  a  word,  we  live  but  to  perfect 
ourselves,  and  make  ourselves  all  we  are  designed  to  be. 
Outside  of  this  we  can  do  nothing  to  glorify  and  enjoy  God. 
We  can  add  nothing  to,  nor  take  from,  the  richness  and 
majesty  of  His  nature.  To  refine,  beautify,  and  enjoy  our- 
selves, is  to  honor  and  enjoy  God  in  the  only  sense  in  which 
we  can  honor  and  enjoy  Him. 

So  far  as  it  is  possible  for  man  to  harm  God,  he  must  do 
it  by  harming  himself  or  his  fellow-beings  ;  and  so  far  as  it 


A   MAN    OF    ONE    IDEA.  11 

is  possible  for  man  to  do  good  to  God,  he  must  do  it  by  doing 
good  to  himself  or  his  fellow-beings.  Men  and  women  dis- 
grace God  only  when  they  disgrace  themselves  ;  they  are  an 
honor  to  God  only  when  they  are  an  honor  to  themselves. 
We  are  true  to  God's  nature  only  when  we  are  true  to  our 
own.  We  are  false  to  God  only  when  we  are  false  to  ourselves. 
We  are  infidels  to  God  only  when  we  are  infidels  to  our- 
selves. In  no  sense  can  men  and  women  be  a  reproach  to 
God,  but  by  being  a  reproach  to  themselves.  No  man  can 
be  conscious  of  God's  approval,  who  is  not  conscious  of  his 
own  approval.  Man  !  do  thyself  no  harm,  and  thou  canst 
do  thy  God  no  harm,  nor  thy  fellow-beings.  Man's  only  sin 
against  his  God  is  the  sin  against  himself.  He  that  never 
sins  against  himself,  can  never  sin  against  God. 

If  Ave  never  violate  the  laws  of  life  and  health  under 
which  we  exist,  Ave  can  never  violate  the  laws  of  God.  To 
be  obedient  to  ourselves,  is  to  be  obedient  to  God.  Justice 
and  fidelity  to  man,  are  justice  and  fidelity  to  God.  To 
reverence  man,  woman  and  child,  is  to  reverence  God.  To 
worship  the  human  is  to  worship  the  Divine  Nature.  Loy- 
alty to  ourselves  is  loyalty  to  God. 

Therefore,  I  place  man  first  as  an  object  of  my  aims  and 
efforts.  Man  is  visible  and  tangible,  and  his  happiness  can 
be  increased  or  diminished  by  my  action.  I  am  a  man,  and, 
of  necessity,  man  must  be  the  one  ever-present  object  of 
thought  to  me  ;  my  affections,  aims  and  actions,  inasmuch  as 
they  are  the  affections,  aims  and  actions  of  a  human  being, 
must  necessarily  centre  on  human  beings,  and  have  reference 
to  their  welfare.  Man  must,  of  necessity,  incarnate  God  to 
man  as  nothing  else  can.  What  we  do  to  man  we  do  to  God  ; 
to  wrong  ourselves  or  others  is  to  wrong  God  ;  to  blaspheme 
against  man  is  to  blaspheme  against  God ;  to  enslave  and 


12  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

sell  man  is  to  enslave  and  sell  God.  The  true  man-wor- 
shipper is  the  true  God  worshipper. 

There  are  those  who  devote  their  powers  to  perfect  the 
nature  of  flowers,  fruits  and  grains,  and  who  feel  richly 
rewarded  by  being  able  to  present  the  most  peffect  type  of 
the  rose,  the  apple,  or  wheat.  Others  devote  themselves  to 
the  work  of  perfecting  the  iorse,  and  of  other  domestic  ani- 
mals. This  use  of  human  talent  is  praiseworthy.  It  is 
laudable  to  seek  to  improve  and  render  beautiful  and  perfect 
as  possible  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  all  the  flowers,  fruits, 
grains,  vegetables  and  animals  that  are  associated  with  the 
existence  and  happiness  of  man.  But  these  are  but  mere 
incidents  to  human  beings.  In  themselves  they  have  no  sig- 
nificance to  us.  They  are  of  value,  and  it  is  important  and 
justifiable  to  seek  to  beautify  and  perfect  them,  only  as  they 
are  thereby  made  more  serviceable  to  man.  Just  so  far  as 
the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms  beneath  man,  can  be 
made  subservient  to  his  true  development  and  happiness,  it  is 
wise  to  expend  our  energies  in  efibrts  to  improve  them. 
Minerals,  vegetables  and  animals  are  of  value  and  deserving 
our  attention  in  proportion  as  they  can  be  made  to  administer 
to  the  demands  of  our  nature. 

So  in  regard  to  all  efforts  made  to  improve  the  implements 
of  agriculture,  the  means  of  transporting  our  persons  and 
goods,  and  of  conveying  our  thoughts,  affections,  and  sympa- 
thies, around  the  world  ;  in  regard  to  efforts  designed  to  make 
water,  air  and  electricity  work  for  man  to  produce  and  pre- 
pare the  means  to  feed  and  clothe  his  body,  to  enlarge  and 
ennoble  his  soul,  and  to  supply  the  demands  of  his  nature 
generally,  the  energies  directed  to  perfect  these  instrumental- 
ities of  human  welfare  are  wisely  expended.  But,  in  them- 
selves, and  aside  from  their  relations  to  human  welfare,  what 
are    steam-engines,   locomotives,   railroads,   telegraphs,   the 


A  MAN   OF   ONE   IDEA.  13 

compass,  the  barometer,  the  thermometer,  chemical  apparatus, 
telescopes,  microscopes,  books,  types,  and  all  other  inventions? 
Nothing ;  and  the  efforts  expended  on  them  are  wasted. 
Their  only  value  is,  in  their  adaptability  to  secure  to  man  a 
nobler  and  a  happier  nature  and  destiny. 

There  are  those,  whose  energies  are  devoted  to  establish, 
perfect,  and  administer  commercial,  literary,  social,  political, 
and  religious  institutions.  But  what  are  institutions  aside 
from  their  relations  to  man?  What  are  churches,  priest- 
hoods, rites  and  ceremonies ;  what  are  schools,  colleges  and 
universities  ;  what  are  governments,  constitutions  and  codes  ; 
what  are  titles,  stations  and  wealth,  except  as  they  contribute 
to  the  elevation  and  happiness  of  human  nature  ?  Aside  from 
this,  they  have  no  more  value  than  hats  and  bonnets  aside 
from  the  heads,  shoes  aside  from  the  feet,  and  coats  and  gowns 
aside  from  the  bodies  which  they  are  designed  to  benefit ;  or 
houses,  aside  from  the  human  beings  for  whose  comfort  and 
shelter  they  are  built.  Harm  not  the  church,  the  priesthood, 
the  creed  ;  harm  not  the  government,  the  constitution,  the 
state  ;  harm  not  the  school  nor  college  ;  harm  not  society ; 
harm  not  God  ;  such  instructions  are  urgently  and  constantly 
enforced  by  teachers  in  church  and  state.  But,  "  do  thyself 
no  harm,"  and  these  will  take  care  of  themselves. 

Not  unfrequently  those  who  are  loudest  in  their  professions 
of  love  for  God  and  regard  for  his  interests  and  glory,  are  the 
very  persons  who  are  most  open  in  their  manifestations  of 
hatred  to  men  and  of  hostility  to  their  interests  and  welfare. 
Under  pretence  of  a  high  and  sacred  regard  for  God,  they 
are  indifferent  to  the  wrongs  and  sufferings  that  are  inflicted 
on  human  beings.  But  man  cannot  wrong  God  except  by 
wronging  himself.  ^Ve  cannot  rob  God  except  by  robbing 
man.  Man  !  Be  careful  never  to  sin  nor  blaspheme  against 
thyself  nor  thy  fellow-beings,  and  thou  canst  not  sin  nor  bias- 


14  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

plieme  against  God.  Never  hate  thy  brother  and  thou  canst 
not  hate  God.  Despise  not  nor  neglect  thy  poor  and  suffer- 
ing brother,  and  thou  canst  never  despise  nor  neglect  thy  God. 
Be  ever  anxious  and  thoughtful  about  the  comfort  tlie  happi- 
ness and  true  glory  of  the  men,  women  and  children  that  are 
around  thee  ;  for  in  this  way,  alone,  canst  thou  show  a  true 
concern  for  the  interests  and  glory  of  thy  God.  "  Do  I  love 
my  neighbor  as  myself?  "  Settle  this,  and  thou  hast  settled 
the  other  question,  "  Do  I  love  God?"  For  to  love  man  is 
to  love  God,  in  the  only  practical  and  profitable  way  in  which 
W'C  can  love  him.  The  knowledge  and  love  of  man,  in  the 
order  of  time  and  in  practical  value,  necessarily  precede  the 
love  of  God.  Indeed,  we  can  know  and  love  God  only  in 
his  manifestations.  He  who  says,  "  I  love  God,  while  he 
hates  his  brother,  is  a  liar,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  him  ;  for 
how  can  he  love  God,  whom  he  hath  not  seen,  while  he  hates 
his  brother  whom  he  hath  seen  ?  "  Be  ever  anxious  to  pos- 
sess and  to  show,  in  all  relations,  a  zeal  and  readiness  to 
endure  scorn,  contempt,  pain  and  death,  for  the  good  of  thy 
fellow-beings,  and  in  this  way  alone  wilt  thou  show  a  benefi- 
cent zeal  and  readiness  to  suffer  and  die  for  God.  Whoso 
suffers  rather  than  inflict  suffering  on  others,  and  dies  rather 
than  kill  others,  suffers  and  dies  for  God,  as  Jesus  did.  Let 
thy  whole  life  be  but  one  sublime,  heroic  act  of  love  and 
devotion  to  thy  oppressed,  down-trodden  and  suffering  fellow- 
beings,  and  in  this  way  alone  canst  thou  worship  God  in 
spirit  and  in  truth.  We  can  know  nothing  of  God  except 
through  his  manifestations. 

One  of  the  purest  spirits  ever  embodied  in  human  form 
earnestly  and  anxiously  asks,  "  Why  is  nothing  ever  said 
about  God  as  being  manifest  in  living  human  beings?  Why 
should  we  be  ever  aiming  to  worship  God  as  an  abstraction  f 
Why  should  we  not  accustom  ourselves  to  see  and  worship 


A   MAN   OF   ONE   IDEA.  15 

God  in  the  living  men,  women  and  children  around  us? 
Especially  in  the  poor,  the  oppressed  and  suffering,  and  in 
those  who  seem  most  lovable  to  us,  who  live  in  most  endear- 
ing and  intimate  relations  with  us,  and  whose  interests  and 
happiness  would  be  most  essentially  promoted  by  such  love 
and  worship  of  a  manifest  God?"  Indeed,  why  should  we 
not  see  and  worship  God  in  living  men,  women  and  children? 
Let  husbands  see  and  worship  God  in  their  wives,  and  wives 
in  their  husbands  ;  parents  in  their  children,  and  children  in 
their  parents  ;  brothers  in  sisters,  and  sisters  in  brothers  ;  and 
let  all  see  and  worship  God,  as  Jesus  did,  in  "  publicans  and 
sinners  ; "  in  the  oppressed,  the  despised,  the  outcast  and  the 
suffering.  In  the  language  of  the  person  above  quoted,  "  such 
love  is  God-given  and  God-nourished.  Such  worship  is  God- 
apjyroved  and  God-accepted^  because  it  identifies  the  worship 
of  God  with  justice,  love,  kindness,  forbearance,  gentleness, 
patience  and  long-suffering  towards  living  human  beings." 

Thus  let  us  love  and  worship  God  and  work  and  suffer  for 
God,  by  loving  and  respecting  our  fellow-beings,  and  by 
laboring  and  suffering,  to  elevate  and  ennoble  them,  and  make 
them  good  and  happy,  and  we  shall  surely  hear  the  welcome 
—  "Come,  thou  blessed  of  the  Father,  enter  into  the  king- 
dom prepared  for  thee  ;  for,  inasmuch  as  thou  hast  done  it 
unto  these  my  brethren,  thou  hast  done  it  unto  me."  Those 
who  think  of  God  and  seek  to  glorify  God,  aside  from  man ; 
who,  under  pretence  of  being  swallowed  up  in  God,  overlook 
their  fellow-beings,  and  pass  by  those  who  have  fallen  among 
thieves,  may  pride  themselves  on  their  zeal  for  God ;  but 
they  are  strangers  to  that  spirit  \vhich  leads  to  doing  good, 
and  makes  it  "  more  blessed  to  give  than  receive  ; "  which 
thinketh  and  doeth  no  evil,  and  which  is  all-hoping,  all-trust- 
ing, all-forgiving,  and  all-enduring.  Having  no  zeal  for 
man,  they  can  have  none  for  God. 


16  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

Man,  then,  is  my  one  idea ;  his  perfection  and  happiness 
my  one  object.  To  beautify  and  ennoble  the  nature  I  bear 
is  Avorthy  the  entire  consecration  of  all  my  powers.  All  other 
ideas  and  objects  are,  in  my  view,  secondary  to  this.  We 
can  never  estimate  too  highly  our  nature  and  our  destiny. 
Man  is,  indeed,  clothed  with  majesty  as  with  a  garment ;  a 
crown  of  glory  is  on  his  head ;  a  diadem  of  beauty  encircles 
his  brow,  placed  there  by  the  Eternal.  All  things  are  placed 
beneath  his  feet,  and  his  dominion  is  over  all,  secondary  and 
subject  only  to  that  great,  vitalizing,  all-controlling  Power  in 
whom  we  live,  move  and  have  our  being,  and  who  is  made 
visible  and  tangible  most  perfectly  in  man,  and  who  can  be 
truly  and  acceptably  worshipped  by  us  only  in  deeds  of  love 
and  justice  to  our  fellow-beings.  Man's  whole  duty  is 
summed  up  in  one  short  sentence :  Loyalty  to  his  own 
Nature.  Man  owes  allegiance  to  nothing  in  the  universe 
whose  existence  necessarily  conflicts  with  the  perfection  and 
happiness  of  a  single  human  being.  Fear  thyself,  and  fear 
nothing  else.  Self-respect  is  the  only  basis  of  respect  for 
others.  Keverence  thyself,  and  be  not  troubled  about  re- 
specting any  being  or  power  outside  of  thyself. 

Do  thyself  no  harm.  —  This  comprises  the  whole  of 
life  and  duty.  He  who  does  himself  no  harm,  can  do  God  no 
harm.  He  Who  does  himself  no  harm,  can  do  his  fellow- 
beings  no  harm.  Indeed,  man  can  do  no  harm  to  God  ;  he 
has  power  only  to  harm  himself  and  his  fellow-beings.  As 
to  what  is  harmful  to  us,  each  must  judge  for  himself;  but 
whatever  a  man  judges  to  be  hurtful  to  himself,  he  decides 
to  be  hurtful  to  others.  He  that  says  another  is  a  villain 
who  attempts  to  enslave  him,  decides  that  he  himself  is  a 
villain  when  he  enslaves,  or  apologizes  for  enslaving,  another. 
He  w^ho  would  shoot  another  who  should  attempt  to  enslave 


A  MAN   OF   ONE   IDEA.  17 

his  "wife  and  children,  decides  that  he  himself  ought  to  be 
shot  when,  by  his  vote  or  otherwise,  he  enslaves  the  wives 
and  children  of  others.  So  in  all  things ;  whatever  is  hurt- 
ful to  us,  we  being  judges,  we  know  is  hurtful  to  others  when 
we  do  it  to  them  ;  and  he  is  "  a  liar,  and  the  truth  is  not  in 
him,"  who  pretends  to  love  and  worship  God,  while  he  does 
to  others  that  which  he  is  not  willing  others  should  do  to 
him  ;  and  who  does  or  apologizes  for  doing  to  others  what  he 
Avould  count  an  insult,  a  disgrace,  and  an  outrage  when  done 
to  him. 

So  what  a  man  decides  to  be  wrong  or  blasphemous  when 
done  to  God,  he  decides  to  be  wrong  or  blasphemous  when 
done  to  man.  Whatever  is  a  sin  and  a  blasphemy  against 
God,  is  a  sin  and  blasphemy  against  man.  He  who  has  no 
respect  for  man,  has  none  for  God.  No  man  can  worship 
God,  while  he  scorns  the  poorest  and  humblest  of  his  chil- 
dren—  for  in  every  man,  woman  and  child,  God  "  is  made 
flesh,  to  dwell  among  us,"  to  be  loved  and  worshipped  by  us. 
Thus  I  associate  man,  not  his  incidents  and  appendages,  with 
what  I  hold  most  sacred,  and  would  labor  to  make  him  worthy 
to  be  thus  intimately  associated  with  my  highest  conception 
of  the  true,  the  just,  the  loving,  and  the  good. 

1* 


18  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHEK. 


CHAPTEE    II, 


MAN  THE  KESULT   OF  HUMAN  AGENCY. 

Human  beings  may  be  viewed  from  two  stand-points ;  i.  e. 
(1.)  Divine  Agency.  (2.)  Hmnan  Agency.  As  seen  from 
the  former,  man,  as  to  existence,  organization,  character  and 
destiny,  is  regarded  as  the  workmanship  of  God ;  as  seen 
from  the  latter,  he  is  considered  the  workmanship  of  man. 
There  are  two  theories  or  systems  of  philosophy  and  religion  ; 
one  regards  and  deals  with  man  as  the  result  of  Divine,  the 
other  as  the  result  of  Human  Agency. 

In  all  practical  efforts  to  elevate  and  perfect  the  nature  we 
bear,  success  depends  essentially  on  w^hich  of  these  two  theo- 
ries we  adopt.  Those  who  consider  man  as  the  result  of 
divine  agency,  will  pursue  a  course  very  different  from  the 
one  adopted  by  those  who  regard  him  as  the  result  of  human 
agency.  Those  who  regard  slavery  as  the  result  of  divine 
agency,  will  deal  with  it,  and  those  who  practise  it,  in  a  man- 
ner widely  different  from  that  which  will  be  adopted  by  those 
who  regard  it  as  the  result  of  human  agency. 

Is  man  the  effect  of  a  cause  over  w^hich  we  have  any 
control?  If  he  is  not,  we  can  never  improve  the  result  by 
improving  the  cause  —  for  the  cause  is  above  and  beyond  our 
reach ;  no  efforts  of  ours  can  change  the  nature  and  opera- 
tions of  the  antecedent.  If  the  fountain,  whence  our  organic 
existence,  character  and  destiny  are  derived,  is  beyond  our 


MAN  THE   RESULT   OF   HUMAN   AGENCY.  19 

reach,  and  can,  in  no  way,  be  affected  by  our  efforts,  we  can 
exercise  no  control  over  the  effect  by  seeking  to  change 
the  character  of  the  cause.  But  if  we  can,  to  any  extent, 
control  the  conditions  of  the  fountain,  we  can,  by  purifying 
and  improving  those  conditions,  purify  the  streams  that  flow 
from  it. 

There  is  a  lake.  Many  streams  flow  from  it.  Can  human 
agency  control  the  conditions  of  that  lake  ?  Can  its  waters 
be  made  sweeter  or  more  bitter,  more  clear  or  more  muddy, 
more  wholesome  or  unwholesome,  by  our  efforts?  If  so, 
then  can  we,  by  changing  the  conditions  of  the  lake,  change 
the  conditions  of  the  streams  flowing  from  it.  Human 
agency  can  decide  whether  those  streams  shall  be  sweet  or 
bitter,  wholesome  or  imwholesome.  But  if  we  have  no  con- 
trol over  the  conditions  of  the  lake,  Ave  cannot,  through  the 
fountain  change  the  character  and  direction  of  the  streams. 
We  may  work  at  the  streams,  and  succeed  in  making  them 
purer  for  a  moment,  but  the  impure  waters  of  the  lake  are, 
without  ceasing,  being  poured  into  these  streams,  and  no 
progress  can  be  made  in  permanently  improving  them  while 
the  fountain  from  which  they  flow  is  turbid  and  poisonous. 
So  long  as  the  lake  is  a  cesspool  of  corruption,  no  power  can 
render  the  streams  clear  and  wholesome. 

So  in  regard  to  human  beings  :  if  the  fountain  from  which 
they  derive  organic  life,  be  filled  with  disease,  that  life  must 
also  be  diseased.  And  if  human  agency  can  exert  no  influ- 
ence over  the  conditions  of  that  fountain,  it  cannot  affect  the 
character  of  the  streams  that  come  from  it.  If  we  can 
purify  the  source,  we  can  the  individual  men  and  women  that 
come  from  it.  Can  we  control  the  existence,  organization, 
character  and  destiny  of  man,  by  purifying  the  fountain  of 
his  organic  life,  or  must  we  settle  down  in  the  conviction 


20  THE   EMPIRE   OF   THE   MOTHER. 

that  man  is  the  result  of  an  agency  over  which  we  can  exer- 
cise no  control? 

In  all  my  efforts  to  improve  and  perfect  the  human  type,  I 
view  men  and  women  from  the  stand-point  of  human  agency 
—  solely.  So  far  as  they  are  the  result  of  a  divine  agency, 
I  have  no  power  to  improve  them.  God  is  beyond  my  con- 
trol ;  I  cannot  improve  his  nature,  nor  change  his  conditions, 
for  better  or  for  worse.  He  must  and  will  perfect  his  own 
work.  He  does  not  wish  us  to  enter  into  his  field  of  labor. 
He  will  attend  to  his  own  affairs,  and,  so  far  as  our  elevation 
and  happiness  depend  on  his  agency,  the  work  will  be  done, 
and  well  done.  No  interference  of  ours  can  make  the  least 
change  in  him,  as  to  his  plans,  his  feelings,  his  motives,  his 
exertions,  or  as  to  the  times  and  means  of  his  accomplishing 
his  work. 

But  what  ^nan  can  make,  man  can  mar  or  mend.  What 
human  agency  can  create,  the  same  can  improve.  So  far  as 
the  human  organism  is  the  result  of  human  agency,  this 
same  power  can  mar  or  mend  it,  —  can  obstruct  or  perfect 
its  action, — 'Can  bring  to  it  health  or  disease,  happiness  or 
misery.  As  he  that  can  make  a  watch,  or  a  locomotive,  can 
take  it  to  pieces,  and  put  it  together,  can  obstruct  or  facilitate 
its  operations,  so  is  it  with  the  human  organism ;  so  far  as 
its  existence,  character,  and  destiny  result  from  human 
agency,  we  can  beautify  or  deform  it,  we  can  control  its  func- 
tions, and  obstruct  or  perfect  their  action.  But  so  far  as 
that  organism,  including  soul  and  body,  is  the  result  of  divine 
agency,  a  power  over  which  we  can  never  exercise  control, 
and  so  far  as  its  operations  depend  upon  that,  God  alone  can 
regulate  its  movements ;  and,  if  obstructions  impede  its 
healthy  action,  in  any  or  in  all  of  its  functions,  we  must  look 
to  God  alone  to  remove  them. 


MAN  THE   RESULT   OF   HUMAN   AGENCY.  21 

Consequently,  that  theory  or  system  of  anthropology,  (the 
only  true  theology,)  which  regards  the  human  organism  as 
the  result  of  divine  agency,  directs  us  to  look  to  the  same 
power  to  remove  the  obstacles  that  impede  its  perfect  action. 
If  it  becomes  diseased,  by  any  means,  and  its  action  becomes 
deranged  and  suffering  ensues,  God  is  supposed  to  be  the 
only  power  that  can  remove  the  disease,  and  restore  the  sys- 
tem to  healthy  action.  If  scrofula,  consumption,  cancer,  fever, 
dyspepsia,  small-pox,  or  any  disease  gets  into  that  organism, 
the  assumption  is,  that  the  Being,  on  whose  agency  its  exist- 
ence and  healthy  action  depend,  can  alone  remove  the  disease 
and  restore  it  to  its  normal  conditions.  So  of  diseases  of  the 
soul,  by  w^hich  its  healthful  and  happy  action  is  deranged ; 
anger,  hatred,  revenge,  ambition,  avarice,  jealousy,  envy,  and 
the  many  appetites  and  passions  that  afflict  our  souls,  and 
utterly  derange  them  in  their  relations  to  others ;  as  these 
conditions  of  the  soul,  so  discordant  and  foreign  to  their  true 
life,  are  supposed  to  be  the  result  of  a  power  outside  of  man 
and  above  human  control,  so  all  religions  teach  us  to  look  to 
a  recuperative  power  aside  from  human  agency. 

So  of  war,  drunkenness,  slaveholding,  murder,  piracy, 
polygamy,  robbery  and  anarchy, — these,  especially  slavery, 
that  comprises  them  all,  and  is  the  "  sum  of  all  villany,"  are 
supposed  to  be  the  result  of  an  agency  above  human  control, 
and  men  are  taught  to  wait  patiently  God's  time  to  remove 
them. 

How  to  induce  God  to  remove  these  diseases  of  body  and 
soul,  and  to  restore  the  deranged  functions  of  our  physical, 
social  and  moral  nature  to  healthful  and  harmonious  action  ? 
is  the  one  great  question  of  all  religions.  God  is  supposed  to 
be  angry  with  us,  and,  as  an  expression  of  his  hot  wrath, 
sends  upon  us  these  diseases.  How  to  appease  his  anger 
and  get  him  into  such  a  state  of  feeling  towards  us  that  he 


22  THE   ESIPIRE   OF   THE   MOTHER. 

shall  be  willing  to  cleanse  our  bodies  and  souls  from  their 
diseases  and  save  us  from  the  sufferings  that  afflict  us  ?  This 
is  what  all  religions  aim  to  show. 

All  religions,  of  the  past  and  present,  propose  essentially 
the  same  means  to  avert  the  wrath  of  God  and  to  induce  him 
to  exert  his  power  to  heal  and  save.  Some  external  rites, 
ceremonies,  or  sacrifices  are  prescribed.  Fruits  and  products 
of  the  earth  are  offered  ;  prayers  and  fastings,  or  the  sacrifice 
of  some  appetite  or  passion,  or  pleasure  ;  the  sacrifice  of  ani- 
mals, or  of  a  human  being,  and  outward  acts  of  worship,  — 
these  have  been  prescribed  by  all  religions.  It  is  supposed 
that  the  heart  of  God  can  be  moved  to  pity,  and  induced,  by 
such  outward  sacrifices,  to  heal  our  diseases  of  body  and 
soul,  and  assuage  our  pains  and  sorrows  resulting  from  them, 
and  rescue  us  from  hell  and  raise  us  to  heaven  ;  or,  what  is 
the  same,  to  take  away  disease  from  the  human  organism 
and  give  it  health. 

And  even  while  praying  and  laboi-ing  to  induce  God  to 
exert  his  power  to  heal  them,  they  do  the  very  things  which 
they  know  will  derange  their  systems  and  produce  disease 
and  suffering.  They  pray  God  to  save  them  from  the  poverty, 
the  diseases,  the  anguish,  the  delirium  tremens,  and  the  pre- 
mature death,  the  idiocy,  the  insanity  and  crimes,  resulting 
from  the  use  of  alcohol  and  tobacco,  and  at  the  same  time 
use  these  poisons.  They  pray  and  labor  to  induce  God  to 
save  them  and  their  country  from  the  results  of  war  and 
slavery,  while  they,  at  the  same  time,  justify  and  practise 
these  deeds  of  blood  and  violence.  They  pray  God  to  save 
themselves  and  families  from  licentiousness,  and  at  the  same 
time,  live  in  prostitution,  licensed  or  unlicensed,  or  both. 
While  they  pray  God  to  save  them  from  anger,  wrath,  revenge, 
evil-speaking,  envy,  jealousy,  covetousness  and  ambition,  they 
cherish,  justify  and  strengthen  these  passions.     They  pray  to 


MAN   THE    RESULT    OF   HUilAN   AGENCY.  23 

be  saved  from  headache,  dyspepsia,  cousumption,  rheumatism, 
and  fever,  yet  habitually  indulge  in  the  very  habits  and  prac- 
tices which,  they  know,  will  introduce  and  strengthen  these 
diseases  within  them.  They  pray  God  to  save  their  children 
from  scrofula,  cancer,  erysipelas,  and  all  inherited  diseases, 
and  to  bestow  on  them  healthy  bodies  and  souls  ;  yet,  so  live 
in  their  domestic  relations,  as  to  entail  on  them  diseased  and 
vicious  tendencies.  They  pray  God  to  spare  the  lives  of  their 
children,  yet  so  live  as  to  entail  on  them  premature  death. 
Thus  while  they  appeal  to  God's  agency  to  preserve  them  and 
theirs  in  health  and  life,  they  exert  their  own  agency  to 
inflict  on  themselves  and  their  offspring  disease  and  death. 
While  they  trust  in  and  look  to  God  to  raise  them  up  to 
heaven,  they  put  forth  their  own  energies  in  efforts  to  plunge 
themselves  and  their  children  into  hell. 

Such  is  the  result  of  a  theory,  or  system,  which  regards  the 
existence,  organization,  character  and  destiny  of  man,  as  the 
result  of  divine  agency.  If  more  children  are  born  to  parents 
than  they  can  support  and  properly  care  for,  their  existence 
is  attributed  to  God,  and  it  is  considered  all  his  doing  and 
marvellous  in  their  eyes.  In  the  existence  of  children,  and  in 
their  organic  and  constitutional  birthright  tendencies,  human 
agency  is  supposed  to  have  no  concern.  If  an  unwelcome 
child  is  born,  whose  existence  is  repulsive  to  both  parents, 
still,  because  it  is  supposed  to  exist  by  Divme  agency,  and  in 
accordance  with  the  will  of  God,  therefore  they  are  urged  to 
submit  quietly  to  the  inscrutable  doings  of  a  wise  Providence. 

If  a  human  being  is  born,  and  that  living  organism  is  made 
up  of  the  worst  possible  materials,  and  those  diseased  and 
imperfect  materials  are  most  imperfectly  put  together,  so  that 
there  is  no  soundness  in  it,  it  is  assumed  that  these  materials 
were  selected  and  made  up  into  that  deformed  and  suffering 
organism  by  Divine  agency  ;  and  the  parents  of  such  a  child 


24  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

are  exhorted  to  be  still,  and  recognize,  in  the  diseases  and 
agonies  of  their  child,  the  work  of  a  kind  but  mysterious 
Providence.  And  when  that  diseased  and  suffering  body 
dies,  the  parents  are  again  told  to  be  still,  and  know  that  it  is 
God  that  afflicts  them,  and  to  kiss  the  rod  that  smites  them. 

So  when  our  domestic,  social,  ecclesiastical,  political  and 
commercial  relations  and  associations  become  corrupt  and 
inharmonious,  as  the  result  of  the  diseases  and  discords  that 
afflict  the  bodies  and  souls  of  individuals,  such  corruptions 
and  discords  are  supposed  to  result  from  an  agency  over 
which  we  have  no  control.  Human  agency,  as  connected 
with  their  existence  or  removal,  is  ignored.  Consequently, 
all  efforts  to  heal  these  diseases  and  inharmonies  of  families, 
and  social,  religious,  and  political  combinations,  are  made 
with  reference  to  this  supposed  fact,  that  God  gave  them,  and 
God  must  take  them  away  ;  that  an  outside  God  sends  cold- 
ness, indifference,  hatred  and  contentions  into  families,  and 
that  the  same  power  must  remove  them ;  that  God  gets  up 
malignant  and  murderous  quarrels  in  churches,  and  that  God 
must  put  them  down ;  and  that  he  may  be  induced  to  do  so 
by  much  praying  and  fasting ;  that  God  gives  war,  slavery, 
drunkenness,  rapine,  insurrections,  rebellions,  and  all  the 
horrors  of  anarchy,  and  God  must  take  them  away,  and  our 
work  is  to  bless  him  whether  he  gives  or  takes.  Thus,  those 
who  view  man  as  the  result  of  Divine  agency,  as  to  his 
existence,  organization,  character  and  destiny,  wait  upon  the 
Lord,  and  do  nothing  themselves,  except,  it  may  be,  to  apolo- 
gize for  and  practise  the  very  evils  they  want  God  to  remove. 

A  Forest  Scene.  —  Several  years  past,  I  took  part  in  a 
convention  called  to  consider  the  following  question  :  What 
shall  we  do  to  be  saved  ?  The  scene  was  a  forest.  Many 
hundreds  assembled.     A  grand  and  glorious  forest  of  great 


MAN  THE   RESULT   OF   HTIVIAN   AGENCY.  25 

extent  encircled  that  great  gathering.  Of  all  subjects  which, 
in  the  dead  past  or  the  living  present,  have  occupied  human 
thoughts,  awakened  human  sympathy  and  anxiety,  and  called 
into  intense  activity  human  energy,  this  has  been  the  most 
prominent  and  important.  For  what  else  do  religions  exist 
with  their  array  of  priesthoods  and  churches,  their  prayers, 
fastings  and  sacrifices,  their  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  their 
holy  times,  places  and  creeds,  but  to  answer  this  one  great 
inquiry?  For  what  do  governments  exist,  with  their  con- 
stitutions and  codes,  their  array  of  legislators,  judges  and 
executives,  and  of  penal  and  military  establishments,  their 
armies  and  navies,  and  penitentiaries  and  gallows,  but  to  solve 
this  simplest,  most  intelligible,  yet  most  mysterious  and 
bewildering  of  all  human  problems?  No  question  is  so 
fraught  with  human  character  ^and  destiny  as  this.  "Well 
may  men  and  women  gather,  in  anxious  crowds,  beneath  the 
overshadowing  forests  and  vaulted  sky,  and  there,  on  God's 
great  anxious  seat,  ask  —  What  sliall  ive  do  to  he  saved  ? 

At  this  convention,  all  of  every  class  of  religionists  were 
present  by  public  invitation.  The  question  was  propounded 
in  due  form,  and  we  were  all  invited  to  give,  each,  such  an 
answer  as  his  convictions  prompted.  Substantially  the  same 
answer  was  given  by  all  till  I  was  invited  to  give  one. 
I  came  upon  the  platform  and  said. —  "Before  giving  my 
opinion  on  the  questio*n  before  the  meeting,  I  would  like  to 
ask  and  briefly  answer  two  other  questions,  i.  e. :  (1.)  Who 
is  responsible  for  the  existence  of  children?  (2.)  "Who  is 
responsible  for  their  organization  ?  "  Leave  being  granted,  I 
said — "The  first  question  in  the  children's  catechism  is  — 
'  Child !  "Who  made  you  ? '  Answer  — '  God.'  This  is  false, 
as  every  child  understands  it ;  this  being  the  impression  made 
and  designed  to  be  made,  that  God  is  res])onsible  for  tlie 
existence  of  children.     The  answer  releases  the  parents  from 


26  THE   EMPIRE   OF   THE   MOTHER. 

responsibility,  and  places  it  upon  an  agency  aside  from  human. 
"Whereas,  parents  know  that  it  is  as  false  to  say  that  God  is 
responsible  for  the  existence  of  their  children,  ^s  it  would  be 
to  hold  God  responsible  for  the  death  of  a  man  who  cuts  his 
own  throat.  You  steal  a  woman  and  enslave  her  ;  and  your 
child  asks  — '  Who  made  that  woman  a  slave  ? '  and  you 
answer  — '  God.'  You  hang  a  man,  and  your  child  asks  — 
'  Who  hung  that  man  ? '  and  you  answer  — '  God/  You  bom- 
bard and  burn  a  city,  and  your  child  asks  — '  Who  burnt  that 
city  ? '  You  say  — '  God.*  A  man  drinks  rum  and  gets 
drunk,  and  the  child  asks  — '  Who  made  him  a  drunkard  ?  * 
and  you  say  — '  God.'  Do  you  not  know  this  is  a  falsehood? 
But  the  existence  of  children  is  no  less  the  result  of  human 
agency ;  and  men  and  women  are  as  really  responsible  for 
the  results  of  their  voluntary  acts  in  one  case  as  in  the  other. 
Yet,  parents  persist  in  teaching  their  children,  as  the  basis 
of  a  religious  education,  that  God  is  responsible  for  their 
existence.  Yet  they  all  know  that  God  is  no  more  responsi- 
ble for  the  existence  of  children,  than  he  is  for  the  death  of 
the  man  that  the  state  hangs,  or  for  the  enslavement  of  the 
woman  that  is  sold  by  the  kidnapper." 

The  assembly  was  greatly  agitated.  A  woman  who,  with 
her  husband,  sat  .before  me,  arose  and  said  in  great  excite- 
ment—  "  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  God  is  not  the  father 
of  my  children  ?  "  "  But  my  friend,"  I  said,  "  I  had  hitherto 
supposed  that  the  man  who  sits  by  you  was  the  father  of  your 
children,  and  I  think  you  would  be  shocked  and  offended  if  I 
or  any  other  should  say  he  was  not."  She  dropped  into  her 
seat  and  said  no  more.  A  minister  then  arose  and  said  — ■ 
*'  Mr.  Wright,  if  I  understand  you,  you  deny  the  doctrine  of 
regeneration,  do  you  not?"  "Why,  my  good  man,"  said  I, 
"  if  you  had  been  rightly  generated,  you  would  not  have 
needed  to  be  re-generated,  would  you?"     He  sat  down  to 


MAN  THE   RESULT   OF   HUMAN   AGENCY.  27 

digest  an  idea  tliat  had  evidently  never  entered  his  mind 
before.  "  It  is  far  better,"  I  continued,  "  more  natural,  more 
economical  and  more  divine,  to  expel  disease  from,  and 
restore  health  to  the  human  organism,  and  to  save  the  race 
from  crime  and  woe  by  generation  than  by  regeneration. 
Give  to  children,  as  a  birthright  inheritance,  healthy  and 
vigorous  bodies,  and  pure  and  noble  souls,  and  the  world's 
huge,  expensive^  clumsy  and  most  inefficient  apparatus  of 
regeneration,  might,  for  most  part,  be  laid  aside.  The 
ecclesiastical  establishments  of  mankind  would  have  nothing 
to  do." 

Another  minister  rose  and  said  —  "  Mr.  "Wright,  you  deny 
that  we  must  be  born  of  God  in  order  to  inherit  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  do  you  not?"  "  Why,  man,"  I  said,  "had  you 
been  rightly  and  healthfully  born  of  woman,  there  had  been 
no  need  that  you  should  be  born  of  God  afterwards,  would 
there  ?  To  be  born  of  woman,  the  offspring  of  love,  and  with 
a  healthy  body  and  soul,  is  to  be  born  of  God.  The  child  of 
love  is  the  true  child  of  God.  Those  who  arc  born  with 
healthy  bodies  and  pure  souls,  are  born  of  God,  and  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  at  the  outset  of  life.  It  is  far 
easier  to  keep  right  after  we  are  started  right,  than  to  get 
right  after  we  have  been  started  wrong.  There  is  far  more 
reason  to  hope  that  those,  who  arc  born  with  healthy  and  pure 
organisms,  will  retain  theii*  innate  health  and  purity,  than  that 
those  who  are  born  to  the  sad  inheritance  of  diseased  bodies 
and  souls,  should  ever  attain  to  a  pure  and  healthy  organism. 
Better,  far  better,  that  the  mother  should  introduce  her  child 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  at  its  natural  birth,  than  to  be 
brought  into  it  by  some  artificial  birth,  produced  by  the 
church,  after  running  a  course  of  sin  and  degradation."  This 
minister  sat  down  to  ponder,  in  silence,  an  idea  which  evi- 
dently seemed  to  him  very  natural  and  replete  with  good 


28  THE  EMPIRE  OP  THE  MOTHER. 

sense,  but  which  had  never  before  been  brought  home  to  his 
reason  and  conscience.  The  thoughts  and  feelings  of  that 
whole  convention  seemed  to  receive  a  new  direction,  and  the 
conviction  to  be  deep  and  lasting  that  human  agency  had  very 
much  to  do  with  the  human  organism,  not  only  as  to  its  exist- 
ence, but  also  as  to  the  diseased  or  healthful,  the  painful  or 
pleasurable  action  of  its  powers  and  functions. 

It  is  asked  —  Shall  we  entirely  ignore  the  agency  of  God 
in  the  propagation,  perpetuation,  perfection  and  happiness  of 
the  human  organism  ?  This  we  cannot  do  ;  every  breath  we 
draw,  every  pulsation  of  the  heart,  every  thought  and  feeling, 
every  power  and  function  of  this  living  organism,  is  an  ever- 
present  testimony  to  each  one,  that  there  is  an  agency  con- 
cerned in  the  existence,  development,  and  happiness  of 
human  beings,  which  is  above  and  beyond  all  human  control, 
and  which  is  the  vitalizing,  impelling,  elevating  and  ennobling 
power  of  human  nature.  Yet,  while  conscious  of  the  existence 
and  presence  of  that  power  in  all  vegetable  and  animal  life, 
we  cannot  ignore  the  fact,  that  the  existence  of  each  and  every 
human  organism  is  the  result  of  a  voluntaiy  relation  on  the 
part  of  the  parents  ;  and  that  the  conditions  of  that  organism 
and  its  character  and  destiny,  must  essentially  depend  on  the 
conditions  of  the  parents,  and  especially  of  the  mother. 


THE   INBORN   SAVIOTJE.  29 


CHAPTER    III. 


OUR  SAVIOUR  IS  BORN  WITH  US. 

In  all  my  efforts  to  perfect  the  type  of  manlioocl  and 
"womanhood,  to  expel  disease  from  the  human  organism  and 
make  it  more  healthy  and  happy  in  all  its  functions,  I  view 
man  solely  from  the  stand-point  of  human  agency ;  of  self- 
KEDEMPTION.  I  assume  that  man  can  and  must  "  work  out 
his  own  salvation,"  or  he  never  will  be  saved.  I  regard  his 
organic  existence,  his  pre-natal  and  post-natal  development, 
and  his  character  and  destiny,  as  they  are  controlled  and 
modified  by  the  power  and  influence  of  men  and  women. 

The  living  human  organism  is  before  me.  I  see  it  and 
recognize  its  existence  and  presence  in  myself,  and  in  all  my 
fellow-beings  around  me.  That  organism  is  made  up  of  dif- 
ferent elements.  Of  all  species  of  mechanism,  natural  or 
artificial,  divine  or  human,  this  seems  the  most  delicate,  most 
complicated,  the  most  simple,  yet  most  mysterious  and  won- 
derful ;  and  that  with  w^hich  I  have  most  to  do  ;  and  with 
which  my  life  and  destiny  are  most  intimately  associated. 
Its  beauty,  its  strength,  its  health,  its  endurance,  and  the 
symmetry,  harmony  and  perfection  of  all  its  parts  and  opera- 
tions, can  never  with  impunity  be  undervalued,  nor  in  any 
way  neglected  ;  for  on  these  are  based  the  life,  the  glory  and 
destiny  of  the  human  race.  Every  thing  relating  to  the  his- 
tory of  that  organism,  relates  to  me.  Its  history  is  my  history, 
its  existence,  growth,  diseases  and  sufferings  are  mine.     All 


30  THE   E^IPIRE   OF  THE   MOTHER. 

tliat  adorns  and  ennobles  it  adorns  and  ennobles  me  ;  all  that 
deforms  and  degrades  it  deforms  and  degrades  me.  What- 
ever is  done  to  man  is  done  to  me.  He  that  enslaves  any- 
human  being,  however  poor  and  despised,  enslaves  me,  and  I 
shall  ever  regard  and  treat  him,  in  the  same  way  in  which  I 
should,  were  I  the  victim  of  his  injustice- and  inhumanity. 

By  human  organism,  I  mean  a  human  being,  with  all  the 
powers  and  attributes  that  are  necessary  to  constitute  a 
human  being.  In  this  phrase,  I  include  whatever  is  neces- 
sary to  make  a  man  or  woman,  physically,  intellectually, 
socially  and  spiritually;  all  that  is  included  in  the  words 
human  body  and  soul.  Whatever  causes  deformity  and 
suffering  to  this  organism,  whatever  disturbs  and  renders 
imperfect  and  painful  its  action  in  any  of  its  functions,  I 
designate  by  the  words  disease,  injury,  deformity  or  abnor- 
mal action. 

As  I  view  this  organism  and  examine  into  its  interior  con- 
ditions, and  the  operations  of  its  various  functions,  I  notice 
some  facts  respecting  it  which  are  as  visible  and  undisputed 
as  is  the  fact  of  its  existence.    Of  which  are  the  following  :  — 

(1.)  This  organism  is  diseased,  i.  e.,  its  functions  in  many 
respects  are  deranged,  its  action  is  irregular,  discordant  and 
painful. 

(2.)  These  diseases  or  defolrmities,  or  deranged  and  pain- 
ful operations,  are  the  result  of  human  agency,  directly  oi 
indirectly,  voluntary  or  involuntarily,  ignorantly  or  know- 
ingly exerted. 

(3.)  These  diseases  can  be  cured  only  by  human  agency, 
i.  e.,  by  the  voluntary  or  involuntary,  the  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious action  of  a  power  within  the  organism  itself.  The 
power  to  cure  disease  and  redet}m  from  suffering  is  within. 
If  cured  and  saved  at  all,  man  must  be  self-cured  and  self- 
redeemed. 


THE   INBORN   SAVIOUR.  31 

Thus  viewing  the  diseases  of  the  human  organism  as  the 
result  of  human  agency,  and  looking  to  the  same  power  or 
agency  to  effect  the  cure,  I  direct  my  energies  accordingly ; 
and  base  my  efforts  on  the  fact,  that  here  is  a  w^ork  that  must 
be  done,  and  that  man  must  do  it  or  it  never  will  be  done  ; 
that  no  external  agency  can  ever  improve  the  nature  we 
bear,  and  if  that  nature  is  ever  to  be  developed  into  a  nobler 
type  of  manhood  or  womanhood,  it  must  be  done  by  the 
*'  Saviour  that  is  born  in  us  and  with  us."  The  soul  of  each 
man  or  woman  is  the  only  manger  in  which  his  or  her 
Messiah  can  be  born. 

In  this  I  plan  and  act  as  I  do  in  other  matters  pcreaiuing 
to  daily  life.  If  my  watch  is  irregular  or  in  any  way  ob- 
structed or  deranged  in  its  operations,  if  a  screw  is  loose,  if 
a  chain  or  spring  is  broken,  if  a  cog  or  wheel  is  bent  or  loose 
so  that  the  action  of  the  watch  is  imperfect,  and  it  ceases  to 
answer  the  end  of  its  existence,  i.  c.,  to  note  correctly  the 
passing  of  time,  I  go  to  the  same  power  that  made  it  to  repair 
it.  If  the  locomotive  is  obstructed  in  its  action  and  fails  to 
answer  the  end  for  which  it  was  made,  we  go  to  the  person 
that  made  it  to  mend  it.  If  the  organ  is  out  of  tune,  we 
resort  to  the  power  that  made  it  to  mend  it.  So  in  regard  to 
the  diseases  that  affect  the  human  organism  ;  the  power  that 
produces  them  must  cure  them. 

But  it  may  be  asked,  may  not  the  power  that  introduces  dis- 
ease ipto  the  system  be  unable  to  cast  it  out  ?  Undoubtedly  ; 
the  mother  may  organize  scrofula,  consumption,  dyspepsia, 
or  neuralgia  into  her  child  and  have  no  pov»^er  to  cast  it  out. 
By  the  use  of  tobacco,  alcohol  and  other  poisons,  human 
beings  may  bring  into  their  systems  various  and  painful  dis- 
eases, and  have  no  power  to  heal  them.  What  then?  If  the 
disease  be  in  the  body,  the  patient  must  suffer  until  through 
suffering  he  "  ceases  to  do  evil  and  learns  to  do  well." 


32  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

It  is  asked,  is  it  not  true,  after  all,  that  we  miist  fall  back 
upon  the  divine  agency  for  healing  and  salvation  ?  Certain 
it  is  that,  if  a  human  organism  or  being,  is  wounded  or  in  any 
way  diseased,  no  external  applications  can  heal  that  wound. 
When  the  body  is  injured  by  any  means,  no  outward  medi- 
cine can  ever  repair  the  injury.  The  recuperator  or  re- 
deemer is  in  that  material  organism.  Outward  applications 
may  remove  obstacles  to  the  effectual  and  speedy  action  of 
that  vital  force  or  recuperator,  but  they  cannot  expel  the 
disease,  heal  the  wound,  join  the  fractured  bones,  or  restore 
healthy  and  vigorous  action  to  the  injured  bodily  organs  and 
functions.  No  drugs,  nor  outward  appliances,  can  purify  or 
cleanse  the  blood  from  the  corrupt  and  diseased  matter  that 
lurks  within  it.  All  this  must  be  done  by  that  inward  power 
or  sentinel,  whose  business  it  is  to  watch  over  the  life  and 
health  of  the  body,  to  keep  all  enemies  from  entering  it,  as 
far  as  possible,  and  drive  them  out  if  they  have  gained  en- 
trance, A  redeemer  is  organized  into  each  body  as  its  birth- 
right inheritance. 

So  of  the  soul,  or  the  intellectual,  social  and  spiritual  part 
of  that  living  organism,  called  man  or  woman.  If,  by  any 
means,  it  becomes  deranged  in  any  of  its  functions ;  if  it 
becomes  wounded, by  harboring  in  it  envy,  jealousy,  anger, 
wrath,  revenge,  ambition,  avarice,  or  by  any  outward  demon- 
strations of  these  passions,  no  power  outside  of  that  soul, 
with  any  outward  appliances,  can  possibly  heal  these  diseases, 
expel  these  enemies  of  its  peace  and  happiness,  and  restore 
it  to  healthy,  harmonious  action  in  its  various  powers  and 
functions.  The  laws  of  the  soul  are  violated  if  love,  justice, 
truth,  purity,  benevolence,  forgiveness,  self-denial,  self-sacri- 
fice, which  are  as  essential  to  the  life  and  health  of  the  soul 
as  food,  air  and  sleep  are  to  the  body,  are  outraged.  The 
natural  action  of  the  soul  is  deranged,  and  suffering  and 


THE    IXBOKN    SAYIOHR.  33 

anguish  must  ensue.  The  recuperator  or  redeemer  to  heal 
that  soul,  and  restore  it  to  health  and  heaven,  is  within  itself, 
as  a  part  and  parcel  of  its  existence.  It  is  the  birthright 
inheritance  of  every  soul,  as  v^ell  as  of  every  body,  and  can 
never  die,  nor  become  inoperative  while  the  soul  lives.  It  is 
Nature's  sentinel,  set  to  watch  the  soul,  that  no  enemy  enter 
its  sacred  enclosure,  or,  if  it  has  entered,  to  drive  it  out  and 
destroy  it. 

Thus  there  is  in  every  human  being  or  organism,  a  recu- 
perator, or  saviour.  Call  it  God,  or  Divine  agency,  if  we 
will;  but  whatever  it  is  called,  it  is  an  essential  clement 
of  human  nature,  and  can  never  be  disregarded  in  our 
estimate  of  man,  and  in  our  efforts  to  cure  his  diseases  and 
give  to  him  health  and  vigor.  This  recuperative  power  is 
as  essential  a  part  of  every  human  organism,  as  is  love, 
reason,  or  will.  What  it  does,  is  done  by  human  agency,  as 
really  as  if  done  by  visible  hands  and  fingers.  Call  it  God, 
if  thou  wilt,  but  it  is  God  so  blended  with  man,  that  they 
cannot  be  separated.  The  action  of  the  God,  in  healing  and 
saving  the  soul  or  body,  is  the  action  of  the  man.  The 
action  of  the  Divine  is  also  the  action  of  the  human  agent. 
Though  it  may  be  said  that,  in  all  our  eiForts  to  elevate  and 
glorify  the  Nature  we  bear,  it  fs  God  who  must  work  in  us, 
prompting  us  to  will  and  to  do,  yet  my  position  is  true,  that 
"  Man  must  work  out  his  own  salvation,"  if  he  is  ever  saved. 
Man,  not  God,  must  "  cease  to  do  evil,  and  learn  to  do 
well,"  or  the  heaven  of  innocence  and  love  can  never  enter 
his  soul. 

In  a  London  Medical  College,  a  number  of  students  were 
being  examined  with  a  view  to  obtain  diplomas.  To  one 
student,  the  examining  professor  put  this  question:  "Will 
you  give  a  concise  definition  of  the  Healing  Art?"     "The 

ART    OF   AMUSING   THE    PATIENT   WHILE    NaTUKE    CURES   THE 
2 


34  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

DISEASE,"  was  the  answer.  A  truer  and  more  comprehen- 
sive answer  was  never  given  to  that  question.  The  Healing 
Art !  The  art  of  expelling  disease  from,  and  restoring  health 
to,  the  entire  human  organism,  body  and  soul.  The  art  of 
saving  man,  or  of  restoring  harmonious  action  to  all  the 
powers  and  functions  of  his  physical,  intellectual,  domestic, 
social  and  spiritual  nature  and  relations  ;  the  art  of  elevating 
men  and  women,  as  individuals,  as  families,  as  societies, 
states,  and  nations,  from  a  hell-state  into  a  heaven-state ! 
What  is  it?  Simply  the  art  of  removing  obstructions  to  health, 
while  Nature  cures  the  disease.  Cease  to  do  evil,  cease  to 
repeat  the  injury,  while  Nature,  or  the  God  within  us,  heals 
the  wounds  already  made.  No  power  in  the  universe  can 
heal  the  human  organism  of  its  wounds,  while  those  wounds 
are  being  repeated.  No  power  can  save  a  man  from  drunk- 
enness, lying,  sensualism,  hatred,  slaveholding,  murder, 
piracy,  or  any  wrong,  while  he  persists  in  the  practice  of 
these  outrages  on  himself  and  others.  No  power  can  raise 
a  soul  to  heaven  while  it  persists  in  plunging  into  hell. 
"  Cease  to  do  evil,  and  do  well,"  and  Nature,  or  the  Saviour 
within,  will  heal  the  wounds  already  made. 

The  human  being,  then,  or  organism,  is  to  be  healed  of  all 
diseases,  not  by  an  external  power,  but  by  the  balm  and 
physician  that  are  born  with  and  in  that  organism,  as  essen- 
tial elements  of  its  existence.  Exterior  agents  may  help  on 
the  cure  by  removing  obstacles,  but  the  inborn  redeemer  must 
do  the  work,  and  restore  the  system,  body  and  soul,  to  per- 
fect and  healthy  action.  The  power  within  must  place  the 
organism  in  a  condition  of  harmony  with  itself,  in  all  its 
functions,  and  with  all  other  human  organisms,  and  with 
every  being  and  thing  in  the  universe. 

It  will  be  asked,  "  What  of  the  doctrine  that  there  is  no 
recuperator,  no  power  to  expel  disease,  and  restore  health,  to 


THE   INBORN   SAVIOUR.  35 

save  from  hell  and  raise  to  heaven,  within  any  human 
organism?  That  each  and  every  human  being  is  without 
any  recuperator  or  redeeming  power,  in  himself  or  herself, 
and  must  depend  solely  on  an  external  power  to  cure  his  or 
her  diseases,  and  restore  him  or  her,  to  health  and  happiness 
of  body  and  soul?"  I  say  that  it  is  simply  false;  because 
opposed  to  the  testimony  and  facts  of  human  and  of  universal 
nature.  There  is  no  power  in  one  tree  to  heal  the  wounds 
given  to  another ;  no  power  in  one  animal  to  heal  the  inju- 
ries inflicted  on  another  animal ;  no  power  in  one  human 
body  to  heal  the  wounds  and  cast  out  the  diseases  inflicted  on 
another  human  body.  The  life-principle  or  God-element  in 
each  tree,  animal  or  human  body,  must  perform  the  cure  of 
all  injuries  and  diseases  inflicted  on  that  tree,  animal  or 
body.  Thus  far  all  admit  the  fact,  that  the  recuperator,  or 
redeemer  within  us,  must  do  the  work.  All  that  can  be  done 
by  any  outward  agency,  is,  to  remove  obstacles  to  the  free, 
natural,  and  speedy  action  of  the  saviour  within. 

But  when  we  come  to  the  soul  or  psychical  part  of  the 
man,  the  existence  of  a  birthright  recuperator  or  redeemer, 
is  ignored,  and  an  external  physician  or  recuperator,  is  intro- 
duced, as  the  only  power  that  can  cure  the  diseases  and 
deformities  of  that.  It  is  admitted  that  every  thing  that  has 
vegetable  or  animal  life,  except  the  soul  of  man,  is  favored 
with  an  ever-present,  ever-watchful,  ever-active,  innate  recu- 
perator or  redeemer,  fully  competent  to  heal  all  injuries  that 
are  curable ;  but  when  we  come  to  this,  the  noblest  mani- 
festation of  power  and  wisdom,  on  this  planet,  no  innate 
redeemer  is  provided  ;  but  the  human  soul  must  look  beyond 
itself,  and  trust  to  the  chance  of  finding  some  external  arbi- 
trary power,  to  heal  its  diseases. 

I  shall  assume  that  human  souls  are  to  be  cured  of  their 
diseases  and  sufferings  and  restored  to  health  and  happiness 


36  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTUER. 

—  are  to  be  purified,  ennobled  and  saved  by  the  same  process 
by  wbich  human  bodies  are  to  be  healed.  I  shall  assume 
that  there  is,  in  each  soul,  a  power  all-sufficient  to  make  it 
just  what  it  was  designed  to  be,  and  all  it  is  capable  of 
being,  and  to  place  it,  ultimately,  in  harmonious  and  happy 
relations  with  all  other  souls  and  with  God.  The  sole  business 
of  practical  reformers  or  redeemers  is,  to  remove  all  obstacles 
to  the  vigorous  action  of  the  innate,  birthright  saviour  —  that 
it  may  bring  its  energies  all  to  bear  on  the  great  work  of 
inducino-  the  ignorant,  mistaken  man  or  woman  to  "  cease  to 
do  evil  and  learn  to  do  well"  —  that  the  redemption  of  the 
soul  may  be  perfectly  wrought  out,  and  made  complete  in 
rin-hteousness  and  be  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  love  and 
of  God.  -T 

I  wound  a  tree.  The  recuperator  within  instantly  goes  to 
work  to  heal  the  wound.  But,  if  I  keep  repeating  the 
wound,  no  cure  can  be  performed.  I  cut  my  finger ;  the 
recuperator  or  saviour  born  in  and  with  my  body,  instantly 
goes  to  work  to  repair  the  injury.  But  the  only  condition 
of  success  is,  that  I  cease  to  repeat  the  wound.  No  power 
within  or  without  the  body  can  ever  eifect  a  cure  if  I  con- 
tinue to  repeat  the  wound.  So  of  the  soul ;  I  wound  it ; 
instantly  that  recuperator,  saviour  or  redeemer,  that  was 
born  with  and  in  my  soul,  rallies  to  drive  out  the  enemy,  to 
heal  the  wound,  and  restore  health  and  soundness  to  it.  But, 
I  repeat  the  injury,  and  keep  repeating  it,  and  thus  render 
all  efforts  to  heal  and  to  save  my  soul  ineffectual.  No  God, 
no  Christ,  whether  within  or  without,  —  no  church,  no  state, 
no  priests,  nor  politicians,  no  creeds  nor  constitutions,  no 
prayers  nor  tears,  can  ever  redeem  my  soul,  except  on  condi- 
tion that  I  "  cease  to  do  evil  and  learn  to  do  well."  Ceasing 
to  do  evil  and  learning  to  do  well,  is  redemption  in  the  only 
sense  in  which  it  can  practically  be  ours.     The  more  per- 


THE   INBORN   SAVIOUR,  37 

fectly  our  souls  are  eudowecl  with  an  organic,  constitutional 
tendency  to  good,  the  more  potent  will  be  this  inborn  saviour 
to  save  us. 

Man  has,  then,  within  himself  a  saviour,  born  with  and  in 
him.  This  saviour,  or  redeemer,  or  God  within  us,  is  ever 
saying  to  us  —  Do  thyself  no  harm  !  And  if  through 
ignorance  or  other  cause  we  do  harm  ourselves  in  body  or 
soul,  this  inborn  Jesus,  this  birth-right  saviour,  is  ever  saying 
to  us  —  "Come  to  me,  take  my  yoke  upon  thee,  and  thou 
shalt  find  rest."  What  yoke  ?  This,  and  this  only :  Cease 
to  do  evil  —  learn  to  do  avell. 


38  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


PHYSICAL  DESTINY  TIXED  BY  ORGANIZATION. 

The  Human  Race  is  a  Unit.  We  are  alike  in  the  general 
features  and  attributes  of  body  and  soul.  The  bones,  nerves, 
muscles,  and  membranes  of  all,  are  alike  in  their  structure, 
location,  action  and  uses.  We  are  alike  in  the  general 
structure  and  tendencies  of  our  souls.  All  are  under  similar 
laws,  having  similar  wants,  a  similar  origin,  common  sympa- 
thies and  a  common  destiny.  Such  is  the  likeness,  that  a 
human  being  can  be  instantly  distinguished  from  every  other 
animal.  Yet  no  two  are  alike  ;  each  individual  having  some- 
thing that  serves  to  distinguish  him  from  each  and  everjr. 
other.  In  the  color  and  expression  of  the  eyes  ;  in  the  form 
and  expression  of  the  countenance  ;  in  the  tones  of  the  voice  ; 
in  all  the  manifestations  of  will,  reason,  affection,  sympathy 
and  conscience,  and  in  all  outward  demonstrations  of  intellect 
and  affection,  there  is  something  which  enables  us  to  distin- 
guish one  from  another.  We  are  warranted  in  the  conclu- 
sion that  —  Nature  never  re-peats  herself ;  but,  in  each  one, 
presents  a  new  type  of  manhood  or  womanhood.  While 
each  has  all  the  general  elements  and  attributes  that  distin- 
guish the  human  being  from  every  other  species  of  animal, 
there  is  a  something  in  the  form  and  manifestations  of  each, 
that  serves  to  give  to  him  or  her  a  marked  individuality. 

All  have  reason,  but  in  each,  reason  differs  in  degree  and 
direction ;    all  have  power  to  love  and  sympathize,  yet  in 


DESTINY  DETERMINED   BY   OKGANIZATION.  39 

each  it  differs  in  depth,  in  earnestness,  in  endurance  and 
direction.  All  have  will,  but  in  each,  how  different  its  mani- 
festations !  All  have  veneration  and  conscience,  but  how 
different  their  direction  and  manifestations  in  each !  The 
conscience  of  one  directing  him  to  do  that  which  that  of 
another  directs  him  to  condemn.  The  conscience  of  a  Chris- 
tian and  of  a  Mohammedan,  of  an  abolitionist  and  a  slave- 
holder, of  the  self-abnegationist  and  the  self-preservationist ; 
how  different  in  its  direction  and  its  susceptibility  ! 

Whence  this  difference  ?  There  is  a  natural  cause  that  is 
subject  to  human  observation,  and,  to  some  extent,  to  human 
control.  Why  is  one  healthy  and  another  diseased  —  one 
hopeful  and  another  desponding  —  one  cheerful  and  another 
melancholy  —  one  generous  and  another  ungenerous  —  one 
suspicious  and  another  confiding — one  noble  and  another 
ignoble  —  one  happy  and  another  unhappy  ?  Why  is  one  re- 
vengeful and  another  forgiving  —  one  loving  and  lovable,  and 
another  unloving  and  unlovable  —  one  honest  and  another 
dishonest  —  one  selfish  and  another  unselfish  ?  Why  is  one 
abandoned  to  theft,  drunkenness,  licentiousness,  violence  and 
murder,  and  another  incapable  of  being  tempted  to  commit 
these  crimes  ?  Wliy  has  one  great  power  to  resist  the  influ- 
ence of  deleterious  and  debasing  material,  social  and  moral 
surroundings,  and  another  no  power?  Why  is  one  a  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  and  another  a  slave-hunter  or  a  pirate? 

Behold  the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  darkness  —  the  de- 
struction that  wastes  at  noon-day  !  In  the  same  family,  one  is 
taken  and  the  others  left.  In  neighborhoods  and  towns,  here 
and  there,  one  is  taken  and  others  left.  Side  by  side  lie  the 
dead  bodies  of  the  infant  of  a  day  and  of  the  man  of  seventy, 
and  by  them  lie  the  bodies  of  the  maiden  of  sixteen  and  the 
matron  of  sixty.  Why  is  this  ?  Is  the  cause  in  the  outward 
surroundings,   or   in  a  defective    internal    structure?      The 


40  THE   ESIPIRE    OF   THE   MOTHER. 

diseased  suiToundings  that  lay  many  physical  human  organ- 
isms in  the  dust,  have  no  power  at  all  over  others ;  solely, 
because  some  have  more  innate  power  to  resist  them  than 
others,  and  because  a  tendency  to  imbibe  disease  is  stronger 
in  some  than  in  others. 

Go  visit  yon  School,  Academy,  or  College ;  observe  the 
difference  in  the  strength,  aptitude,  and  manifestations  of  in- 
tellect. Go  to  yon  play-ground ;  observe  the  variety  in  the 
tempers,  dispositions,  passions  and  propensities  of  the  jubilant 
group  there  assembled.  Their  untamed  hearts  and  exuberant 
spirits,  all  shout  out  the  great  chorus  of  Humanity,  yet  how 
various  their  modes  of  manifestation.  How  each  differs 
from  each  and  every  other  in  character  and  destiny.  One  is 
rough,  another  polished ;  one  gentle,  another  ungentle ;  one 
is  loud  and  boisterous,  another  quiet  and  peaceful ;  one 
obtrusive,  another  unobtrusive ;  one  is  irritable  or  sulky,  or 
revengeful,  another  calm,  self-possessed,  kindly  forbearing, 
and  for^iviniir. 

Whence  this  difference  in  the  character  and  destiny  of 
human  beings  ?  Where  must  we  look  for  the  force  or  influ- 
ence that  gives  character  to  their  thoughts  and  feelings,  their 
appetites  and  passions,  their  plans  and  actions,  and  that  issues 
in  such  different  results  in  individuals,  who  in  general  charac- 
teristics are  so  much  alike  ?  Whence  the  difference  in  the  daily 
and  hourly  destiny  of  each  ?  Is  it  caused  by  an  interior  or  exte- 
rior force  ?  Is  it  to  be  found  in  the  innate,  internal  structure 
and  development  of  each  individual  organism ;  or  in  the 
material,  intellectual,  social  and  spiritual  surroundings?  Is 
it  a  power  over  which  the  individual  has  a  conscious,  volun- 
tary control,  or  one  whose  influence  is  ever-present,  ever-felt, 
and  ever-potent  for  good  or  evil,  but  before  which  the  indi- 
vidual soul  is  powerless  ?  Is  the  power  that  thus  controls  the 
manifestations  of  intellect,  affection,  passion,  appetite  and  the 


DESTINY   DETERMINED   BY   ORGANIZxiTION.  41 

interior  and  exterior  action  and  life  of  the  entire  organism, 
constitutional  and  organic  —  or  is  it  adventitious  and  edu- 
cational ?  Behold  the  revelations  and  manifestations  of  the 
living  human  organisim,  in  all  their  varieties  and  ramifications 
in  agriculture,  mechanics,  commerce,  science,  literature,  art, 
in  all  domestic,  social,  religious,  political  and  commercial 
relations  —  in  war,  slavery,  drunkenness,  and  every  species 
of  crime  and  immorality  !  Is  the  power  that  produces  these 
results,  so  various,  so  diverse  and  complicated,  within  or 
without  that  living,  human  mechanism? 

Passing  by  the  nursery,  the  family,  the  school,  the  church, 
the  state,  conventionalism,  and  all  other  material,  social,  reli- 
gious, civil,  intellectual,  exterior  surroundings,  I  would  direct 
attention  to  the  organization  itself,  and  say  — 

As  IS  THE  Organization  —  so  will  be  the  ciiail.icter 

AND  DESTINY  OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  MAN  OR  WOMAN  AND  OF 
THE  RACE. 

By  organism  or  organization,  I  mea«  the  whole  man  or 
woman  —  including  soul  as  well  as  body.  The  soul,  I  shall 
assume,  without  argument,  is  an  organized  structure  as  well 
as  the  body  ;  and  has  organic  conditions  and  tendencies  ;  an 
organism  within  an  organism,  the  former  being  the  vitalizing, 
motive  power  of  the  latter ;  a  kingdom  within  a  kingdom, 
the  former  combining,  adjusting,  directing  and  ruling  the 
latter.  The  former  is  the  i^sTjcMcal,  the  latter  the  i^hysical 
kingdom.  Both  harmoniously  blended,  make  the  united 
kingdom  of  God  and  man  —  the  body  being  the  kingdom  of 
God,  as  truly  as  the  soul. 

Is  it  a  truth,  a  simple  fact  of  human  life,  that  as  is  the 
organization,  so  will  be  the  character  and  destiny  of  the  indi- 
vidual ?  Or,  in  other  words  —  Is  destiny  determined  by 
ORGANIZATION?  Is  the  action,  or  manifestation  of  the  soul, 
2* 


42  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

of  the  man  or  woman  determined  by  organic  conditions  and 
constitutional  tendencies  ? 

In  pursuing  this  inquiry  two  questions  arise.  (1.)  Are 
human  character  and  destiny  at  all  affected  by  organization  ? 
(2.)  If  so,  to  what  extent? 

That  our  character  and  happiness  are  affected,  more  or 
less,  by  organic  conditions  and  tendencies,  is  attested  by  the 
experience  of  each  and  every  one.  It  is  simply  a  matter  of 
consciousness,  a  self-evident  truth,  which  no  argument  can 
refute  or  confirm,  nor  make  more  intelligible.  As  to  the 
extent  of  that  influence,  opinions  vary — some  affirming  that 
human  organisms  or  beings  have  absolutely  no  more  control 
over  their  interior  or  exterior  actions  and  manifestations,  than 
has  a  clock  or  locomotive  ;  and  others,  that  within  the  limits 
of  fixed  and  beneficent  laws,  they  can  and  do  control  their 
destiny. 

Consider  the  organic  conditions  of  the  body.  What  influence 
do  these,  daily  and#hourly,  have  on  the  interior  and  exterior 
life  and  happiness  ?  Do  they  have  any  ?  The  life  of  each 
man  or  woman  is  a  fact,  demonstrating  that  the  character  and 
destiny  of  each  one  are  momentarily  and  essentially  affected 
by  such  conditions  ;  that  the  intellectual,  affectional  and  pas- 
sional manifestations  of  the  soul  depend,  essentially,  on  the 
organic  conditions  of  the  body.  Certain  conditions  of  the 
body  predispose  to  headache.  What  those  conditions  are,  we 
may  not  be  able  to  tell  precisely ;  yet  we  know  that  headache 
and  freedom  from  that  pain  cannot  result  from  the  same  phys- 
ical conditions.  The  same  cause  cannot  produce  effects  so 
dissimilar ;  the  same  tree  cannot  produce  fruit  so  unlike  and 
contradictory.  Mothers,  subject  to  headaches,  seldom  fail  to 
organize  into  their  children,  a  tendency  to  the  same,  so  that 
whatever  affects  the  digestion  or  the  nerves  unfavorably, 
ends  in  this  disease.    Certain  organic  bodily  conditions  neces- 


DESTINY   DETERMINED    BY   ORGANIZATION.  43 

sarily  result  in  the  suffering  called  dyspepsia.  Though  we 
may  not,  in  our  present  ignorance  be  able  to  determine  what 
are  those  conditions  that  result  in  this  kind  of  suffering,  yet 
we  do  know  that  the  pain  and  the  absence  of  it,  cannot  result 
from  the  same  organic  conditions.  Mothers  affected  by  this 
disease,  seldom  fail  to  organize  it  into  their  children.  So 
cancer,  scrofula,  and  consumption,  are  generally  the  results 
of  certain  organic  physical  conditions  and  tendencies.  The 
pain  and  suffering  designated  by  these  words,  must  of  neces- 
sity, always  result  from  similar  bodily  conditions. 

We  may  not,  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  in 
regard  to  human  physiology,  be  able  to  say  what  conditions 
will  necessarily  produce  these  sad  and  painful  effects ;  yet, 
we  do  know  that  they  must  be  different  from  those  which 
produce  opposite  results.  The  fact  that  a  man  has  those 
conditions  which  must  of  necessity  result  in  such  sufferings, 
can,  as  yet,  be  known  only  by  the  fact,  that  the  results  exist. 
"Will  knowledge  ever  be  so  increased,  that  the  conditions  may 
be  known  independent  of  the  results  ?  That  we  may  know 
before  the  results  appear,  that  such  and  such  bodies  will 
surely  be  affected  by  such  and  such  diseases'?  So  of  all 
physical  diseases  and  sufferings,  resulting  from  organic  con- 
ditions ;  we  know  there  is  a  defect  in  the  system  somewhere, 
or  these  results  would  never  be  experienced.  The  conscious- 
ness of  the  pain  demonstrates  the  existence  of  a  defect  in  the 
system. 

Physical  disease  and  death  may  result  from  causes  that  are 
not  organic.  They  may  be  produced  by  external  causes. 
So  far  as  the  particular  disease  or  suffering  is  concerned,  the 
organic  conditions  may  be  sound  and  productive  of  conscious 
joy.  These  conditions  may  be  such  that  existence,  in  itself, 
may  be  conscious  and  uninterrupted  bliss,  a  succession  of 
exulting  sensations.     Every  throb  of  the  heart,  every  bound- 


44  THE  e:mpire  of  the  mother. 

ing  pulse  may  be  heaven.  Yet,  exterior  influences  may  bear 
upon  us,  to  produce  disease  and  pain,  and  entirely  defeat  the 
end  of  those  healthful,  happy,  organic  conditions.  The 
organic  action  may  be  perfect  in  itself,  and  yet  the  indi- 
vidual destiny  be  made  most  painful,  through  external 
surroundings.  Bat  the  diseased  conditions  of  material  sur- 
roundings, may  be  and  often  are  resisted  by  a  superior, 
internal  power,  that  protect  the  body  from  their  influence. 
But  this  vital  energy  or  force  must  be  organized  into  that 
body,  before  birth,  or  it  can  hardly  be  created  afterwards,  by 
any  process  of  outward  discipline.  The  power,  or  ability  to 
resist  must  be  there,  or  no  resistance  can  be  made.  No  one 
can  exert  forces  that  he  does  not  possess. 

It  is  within  the  certain  knowledge  of  every  one,  that  the 
above-named  diseases  and  others,  and  the  sufferings  and 
deaths  resulting  from  them,  not  unfrequently,  spring  from 
causes  that  are  purely  organic  ;  causes,  which  must  result  in 
pain  and  death,  however  healthful  and  happy  may  be  the 
surroundings. 

These  physical  diseases  are  manifested  in  infants  and 
young  children  ;  and  they  have  to  be  subjected  to  the  conse- 
quent suffering.  No  wisdom,  tenderness  and  care  of  the 
mother  or  nurse,  after  they  are  born,  can  wholly  avert  the 
painful  destiny.  The  organism  is  diseased,  and  the  moment 
the  child  assumes  an  independent  existence,  and  begins  to  be 
sustained  by  the  action  of  its  own  breathing  and  digestive 
apparatus,  that  diseased  condition  produces  its  necessary 
results  —  pain,  and  often  death. 

Two  children  begin  the  journey  of  life,  the  same  hour,  and 
under  the  same  outward  surroundings  and  influences.  One 
is  without  pain,  happy  and  joyous,  and  in  every  expression  of 
its  face  and  motion  of  its  limbs,  demonstrates  that  it  feels  ex- 
istence to  be  bliss  and  only  bliss.    The  other  is  distorted  with 


DESTINY   DETERMINED   BY   ORGANIZATION.  45 

pain,  and  is  wretched.  In  its  every  expression  and  motion, 
it  manifests  its  sufferings,  and  its  protest  against  such  a  pain- 
ful, wretched  existence.  The  secret  of  it  is  this :  one  is 
blessed  with  a  healthful,  harmonious  organization  ;  the  other 
is  cursed  with  a  diseased,  inharmonious  one.  We  often  hear 
of  birthright  tendencies  to  disease  —  of  inherited  cancer, 
scrofula,  neuralgia,  or  consumption.  The  phrase  is  most 
expressive  and  easily  understood.  It  simply  expresses  inher- 
ited conditions  of  the  physical  organism  which  necessarily 
result  in  the  particular  kind  of  suffering  expressed  by  these 
words,  when  exposed  to  certain  surroundings.  Diseased, 
organic  tendencies  may  be  counteracted,  and  never  be  allowed 
to  culminate  in  actual  manifestations  and  suflering,  by  a  wise 
regulation  of  outward  influences.  So  of  healthful,  organic 
tendencies  —  these  may  be,  and  often  are  destroyed,  by  inju- 
dicious external  treatment. 

It  is  appalling  to  see  the  living,  sensitive,  and  most  sus- 
ceptible organism  of  a  child,  soon  as  born,  committed  to  the 
absolute  control  of  a  mother  or  nurse,  who  knows  and  cares 
nothing  about  its  internal  structure,  and  how  to  regulate  its 
external  treatment  and  surroundings,  in  order  to  its  healthful 
and  harmonious  development.  That  tender  organism  may 
be  formed  of  tolerably  healthy  materials,  and  those  materials 
be  harmoniously  and  happily  put  together ;  but  the  mother 
knows  not  how  to  feed,  clothe  and  handle  it.  Instead  of 
acquainting  herself  with  human  physiology  and  anatomy, 
which  knowledge  is  above  all  price  in  the  mother,  and  without 
which  no  woman  is  fitted  or  worthy  to  be  a  mother,  she  spent 
her  girlhood  and  youth,  it  may  be,  in  administering  to  her 
vanity,  her  ambition,  or  in  the  pursuit  of  that  knowledge  and 
those  accomplishments,  which  can  be  of  little  use,  except  to 
attract  admiration  and  elicit  applause  from  the  worthless. 
Millions,  that  are  born  with,  tolerably  healthy  and  vigorous 


4.6  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

bodies,  are  doomed  to  a  life  of  suffering  and  a  premature 
death,  by  this  ignorance  of  woman  in  regard  to  human  phys- 
iology and  anatomy ;  a  knowledge  of  which  can  alone  fit  her 
to  be  a  mother  or  a  nurse.  But,  after  all,  the  responsibility 
of  this  sad  and  most  baneful  and  disgraceful  ignorance,  rests 
mainly,  if  not  solely,  on  man.  Man  never  thinks  of  this  as  a 
necessary  qualification  in  the  one  he  chooses  for  a  wife,  and 
the  mother  of  his  children,  but  rather  scouts  it.  Fathers  take 
no  thought  nor  care  to  have  their  daughters  instructed  in  this 
most  important  of  all  knowledge,  for  the  mother  of  the  race  ; 
their  daughters  being  taught  that  it  is  far  more  important  to 
know  how  to  crochet  cats  and  dogs,  and  parrots,  than  to 
know  the  interior  structure  of  the  human  organism,  and  how 
to  develop  it  in  health  and  beauty.  Brothers  feel  no  interest 
in  the  education  of  their  sisters  in  this  science.  The  church 
and  state  have  not  half  the  concern  in  educating  the  daughters 
of  the  laud  how  to  treat  the  human  organism  in  infancy,  in 
orcTer  to  its  vigorous  and  healthy  development,  which  they 
show  in  teaching  their  sons  how  to  treat  and  develop,  most 
perfectly,  the  organic  existence  of  horses  and  cattle,  of  pigs 
and  poultry. 

It  is  perfectly  truthful  to  say  of  this  or  that  bodily  disease, 
—  it  is  often  organized  into  us.  Consumption  is  organized 
into  one,  neuralgia  into  another,  cancer  into  another,  scrofula 
into  another,  and  so  on,  in  regard  to  every  disease  with  which 
tlfe  human  body  is  organically  afflicted.  The  physical  suffer- 
ing and  death  resulting  from  such  organic  diseases,  result 
from  causes  so  fixed  that  years  will  be  necessary  to  counter- 
act them,  and  restore  the  organism  to  soundness.  Or,  perhaps, 
restoration  is  impossible,  and  that  poor,  deformed,  suffering 
organism  never  knew  an  hour's  freedom  from  pain,  from  the 
day  of  its  birth  to  that  of  its  death. 


DESTINY  DETEKMrXED   BY   ORGANIZATION.  47 

Amid  all  the  experience  and  observation  that  each  and 
every  one  has,  can  any  one  be  so  bold  as  to  say  that  our 
physical  destiny  is  not  at  all  affected  by  our  organic  condi- 
tions ?  I  think  not.  About  one-third  of  all  that  are  born  in 
New  England  die,  as  to  corporeal  existence,  under  five  years 
of  age.  About  two-thirds  under  fifteen.  And  this  terrible 
destruction  is  the  result  of  certain  diseased  physical  conditions 
and  tendencies.  Surely  organic  conditions  do  most  fatally 
determine  the  physical  destiny.  Even  while  they  live,  daily 
and  hourly  pain  is  their  bitter  portion.  Every  hour  their 
physical  destiny  is  affected  by  their  organic  conditions.  In 
youth,  in  manhood  or  womanhood,  and  even  in  extreme  old 
age,  is  physical  destiny  determined  by  birthright  physical 
conditions.  For  how  many  that  die,  physically,  in  these 
seasons  of  life  attribute  their  death  to  inherited  diseases? 
How  many  suffer  thirty,  fifty,  and  seventy  years,  keenly 
and  terribly,  from  such  diseased  tendencies  of  the  physical 
organism?  We  must  not,  cannot,  shut  our  eyes  to  these 
facts  of  life.  They  meet  us  at  every  step.  Disease,  pain 
and  death  are  organized  into  us,  and  made  essential  elements 
of  human  existence,  to  a  large  part  of  the  civilized  portions 
of  the  race. 


48  THE   EittPIRE   OF   THE   MOTHER. 


CHAPTER  V. 


PSYCHICAL  DESTINY  FIXED  BY  ORGANIZATION. 

The  Human  Soul.  —  What  can  be  said  of  that?  What 
is  it?  Of  what  is  it  composed!  What  are  the  facts  in 
regard  to  its  modes  of  action,  its  nature  and  destiny?  It 
would  be  easy  to  deal  in  fiction  ;  but  I  would  discard  fiction, 
and  look  at  facts.  The  soul  is  something  that  sees  and  hears, 
thinks  and  feels.  It  is  not  a  thought,  but  that  which  thinks ; 
it  is  not  a  feeling,  but  that  which  feels.  I  shall  assume  here, 
as  I  have  done,  that  the  soul  is  a  substance,  a  something  and 
not  nothing.  I  shall  assume  that  it  is  an  organized  struc- 
ture, and  shall  designate  it  the  psychical  organism  —  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  body  or  physical  organism.  I  shall  call 
its  destiny  the  psychical  destiny,  as  I  do  that  of  the  body, 
the  physical  destiny  of  man.  The  question  may  arise.  Of 
what  is  the  soul  composed  ?  We  cannot  tell.  We  know  not 
the  substances  of  which  it  is  composed,  nor  how  they  are  put 
together.  We  know  it  only  through  its  manifestations  as 
these  are  made  known  to  our  consciousness,  and  to  our  bodily 
senses,  i.  e.,  to  our  interior  and  to  our  exterior  senses.  By 
its  fruits  we  know  it,  as  these  are  recognized  by  our  interior 
and  exterior  experiences.  As  we  know  that  air,  light,  elec- 
tricity and  magnetism  exist  by  their  fruits,  so  do  we  know 
that  the  soul  exists  by  its  fruits.  But  we  can  no  more  know 
of  what  materials  the  soul  is  composed  by  observing  its 


DESTINY   DETERMINED    BY    OPvGANIZATION.  49 

fruits,  than  vre  can  of  -what  magnetism  is  composed  by  seeing 
its  fruits. 

Judged  by  its  manifestations,  I  should  conclude  the  soul  to 
be  a  compound  of  material  elements,  as  really  as  is  a  bar  of 
iron ;  differing,  of  course,  in  kind ;  the  soul  being  composed 
of  materials  so  refined  and  so  potent,  that  when  put  together 
in  a  certain  manner,  and  placed  in  certain  conditions,  it  is 
capable  of  producing  all  the  phenomena  attributed  to  the 
soul ;  that  it  can  see,  hear,  feel,  taste,  smell,  think,  reason, 
will,  love,  hate,  worship,  &c. 

The  soul  is  capable  of  a  great  variety  of  manifestations. 
We  classify  them,  and  call  one  class  Reason,  another  AA'ill, 
another  Love,  another  Conscience,  another  Passion,  another 
Hunger,  another  Thirst,  another  Hatred,  &c.  But  it  is  the 
same  soul,  acting  in  various  ways,  towards  different  objects, 
and  for  different  ends.  So  we  group  the  faculties  of  the 
soul,  and  call  one  group  Intellectual,  another  Affectional, 
another  Social,  another  Moral,  another  Domestic,  another 
Religious.  But  it  is  one  and  the  same  psychical  organism 
that  performs  all  these  operations,  making  itself  manifest 
towards  different  objects  in  different  ways,  and  for  different 
purposes.  But,  however  we  may  analyze  and  classify  its 
operations,  and  reason  about  its  modes  and  actions,  yet  we 
have  the  same  reason  to  consider  it  in  the  light  of  organized 
matter,  composed  of  different  elements,  put  together  in  cer- 
tain proportions,  and  that  its  organic  existence  is  produced  by 
the  action  of  fixed  laws,  that  we  have  to  consider  the  body 
in  this  light. 

Does  the  soul  form  the  body  or  the  body  the  soul  ?  Does 
the  physical  man  produce  the  psychical,  or  the  psychical  the 
physical  ?  It  seems  most  consonant  with  reason  and  facts 
to  say  that  the  soul  forms  the  body,  the  psychical  the  physi- 
cal man  ;  that  the  body,  or  exterior  organism,  is  an  appendage 


50  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

to  the  soul,  or  interior  organism.  The  soul,  not  the  body, 
is  the  conscious,  thinking,  feeling,  vitalizing  power  ;  the  real 
man  or  woman.  The  power  to  attract,  absorb,  assimilate 
and  construct,  is  in  the  soul,  not  in  the  body.  The  soul,  not 
the  body,  is  the  motive,  plastic  power  to  gather  up  the  mate- 
rials and  construct  the  body.  The  body  for  the  soul,  not  the 
soul  for  the  body ;  the  physical  for  the  psychical,  not  the 
psychical  for  the  physical  man. 

What  the  soul  is,  I  know  not ;  what  it  does,  I  know,  by 
consciousness,  and  by  seeing  and  hearing  through  my  interior 
and  exterior  senses.  Man  !  What  is  he  ?  A  being  com- 
posed of  two  distinct  organisms,  both  of  which  are  made  up 
of  material  substances,  one  within  the  other  ;  each  essentially 
dependent  on  the  other  for  health  .and  happiness,  while  in 
this  state ;  an  outer  and  inner  kingdom ;  the  interior  acting 
through  the  exterior,  and  through  it  manifesting  its  needs, 
its  thoughts,  its  emotions,  and  all  its  operations,  so  far  as  it 
can  be  done,  but  still  capable  of  an  mdepe0ent  existence 
ivlien  the  exterior  shall  have  been  cast  off.  The  psychical 
organism,  the  inner  man,  can  be  seen  and  heard  by  the  eye 
and  ear  of  the  soul,  as  the  physical  organism,  or  outer  man 
can  be  seen  and  heard  by  the  eye  and  ear  of  the  body.  As 
the  physical  body  can  be  seen,  heard  and  felt  by  other  phys- 
ical bodies,  so  the  soul,  or  psychical  body,  can  be  seen,  heard 
and  felt,  by  other  souls  that  have  cast  off  the  outer  man,  and 
entered  upon  the  life  within  the  veil.  As  I  know  what  Mag- 
netism does,  at  least  some  things  that  it  does,  but  know  not 
what  it  is,  so  I  know  many  things  which  the  soul  does,  but 
not  w-hat  it  is.  Behold  what  it  does !  What  are  the  Gov- 
ernmental, Ecclesiastical,  Educational  and  Commercial  Insti- 
tutions of  the  world?  What  are  houses,  towns,  cities,  ships, 
agricultural,  manufacturing  and  mechanical  operations  and 
implements?    What  are  all  those  things  that  are  designed 


DESTINY   DETERMINED   BY   ORGANIZATION.  51 

to  compel  the  forces  of  nature  to  work  for  man?  Beliold 
every  thing  that  man  has  invented  and  done  to  supply  the 
demands  of  his  body  and  soul !  These  all  are  but  outward 
manifestations  of  that  soul,  that  gives  vitality  and  power  to. 
the  body.  All  that  man  does,  individually  and  collectively, 
is  but  the  work  of  the  human  soul.  What  power  is  in  that 
interior  organism !  Whatever  is  found  on  earth,  as  the 
product  of  human  ingenuity,  skill,  and  action,  is  but  the 
manifestation  of  this  unseen,  intangible  agent. 

Many  questions  may  arise  which  fancy  and  curiosity  may 
suggest,  and  imagination  answer.  Are  souls  generated  as 
bodies  are  ?  Or,  are  they  created  by  some  direct,  arbitrary 
exertion  of  power,  a  soul  for  each  body  ?  At  what  time  in 
the  developmental  process  does  the  soul  take  possession  of 
the  body?  These  and  many  other  questions  relating  to  the 
human  soul,  may  arise  in  the  mind  of  the  reader,  but  they  are 
not  pertinent  to  my  great  object,  which  is  to  answer  this  one 
question  —  Is  the  destiny  of  the  soul  or  psychical  organism 
determined  by  its  organization?  In  this  respect  does  the 
analogy  hold  good  between  the  soul  and  body  ?  This  I  will 
do  what  I  may  to  answer. 

I  have  assumed  that  the  soul,  like  the  body,  is  an  organic 
structure,  exactly  corresponding  with  the  exterior  organism  ; 
its  vitalizing  and  motive  power  permeating  and  vitalizing 
every  particle  of  matter  in  the  body  —  answering  to  it  in  form 
and  size,  and  through  it  making  itself  visible,  audible  and 
tangible  in  all  its  infinitely  varied  and  diversified  operations. 
I  have  shown  that  the  destiny  of  the  body  depends  on  the 
kind  of  materials  of  which  it  is  composed  and  on  the  manner 
in  Avhich  they  are  put  together.  Do  the  healthy  action  and 
happy  destiny  of  the  interior  organism  depend  on  the  same 
causes?  Is  this  unseen,  intangible,  most  mysterious  organ- 
ism—  this   vitalizing,    motive,    thinking,    emotional  power, 


52  THE  EMPIRE  OP  THE  MOTHER. 

which,  in  fact,  constitutes  the  man  or  the  woman,  like  a  watch, 
dependent,  for  its  healthy  and  happy  destiny,  on  the  perfec- 
tion of  its  materials,  and  of  its  workmanship  ?  If  the  mate- 
rials of  which  a  Avatch  is  made  be  ever  so  perfect,  and  they 
be  clumsily  put  together,  there  will  be  no  harmony  of  action 
between  the  parts,  and  no  confidence  will  be  had  in  it  as  an 
indicator  of  time.  It  will  be  worthless,  inasmuch  as  it  can- 
not answer  the  end  of  its  existence.  Then,  again,  if  the 
workmanship  be  ever  so  perfect,  and  the  materials  be  unsound 
and  unsuitable  for  such  a  purpose  as  a  watch,  then  its  action 
will  be  irregular  ;  it  will  be  worthless.  It  cannot  be  trusted. 
Is  it  thus  with  the  thinking,  feeling,  rational  part  of  human 
nature?  The  psychical  organism  of  man,  when  made  up  of 
right  materials,  unmixed  with  alloy,  but  put  together  without 
order  or  harmony  between  the  several  parts  ;  can  its  destiny 
be  noble  and  happy?  If  it  ever  attains  to  harmony  and 
happiness,  must  it  not  be  through  much  suffering !  But 
suppose  the  materials  to  be  unsound  and  unfit,  and  the  put- 
ting together  be  perfect ;  would  not  the  result  be  the  same  ? 
Must  not  that  soul  reach  the  kingdom  of  heaven  through 
much  tribulation  ?  It  must.  Life,  to  all  such  unsound  and 
discordantly  formed  souls,  must  spring  from  death.  But  when 
that  which  thinks,  feels,  vitalizes,  contrives  and  does  all  that 
is  designed  and  done  by  men,  women  and  children,  is  composed 
of  sound  and  fitting  materials,  and  these  are  harmoniously  put 
together,  then  the  soul  comes  forth  upon  the  theatre  of  life, 
proudly  and  exultingly  takes  its  place  amid  the  great  universe 
of  living  beings,  with  a  crown  of  fadeless  beauty  and  radiant 
glory  before  it,  and  gi'andly  and  majestically  walks  on  to  take 
possession.  Will  any  human  soul  come  short  of  this  bright 
destiny  ?  If  so  —  why  ?  May  it  not  be  owing,  mainly,  to  the 
imperfection  of  its  materials  and  of  the  manner  of  their 
making  up?     In  a  word,  to  a  diseased  organization?     The 


DESTINY   DETERMINED   BY   ORGANIZATION.  53 

history  of  the  human  soul  is  but  a  series  of  facts  to  demon- 
strate the  truth  of  the  position,  that  the  destiny  of  each  soul  is 
determined  by  its  orrjanization  and  its  constitutional  tendencies. 

In  this  investigation  I  ignore  all  discussion  of  the  question 
of  Free  Agency  and  individual  responsibility.  The  con- 
sciousness of  each  man  or  woman  will  take  care  of  that. 
This  answers  all  questions,  scatters  all  doubts,  and  clears 
away  all  darkness  in  regard  to  that  long  and  anxiously  mooted 
subject.  No  matter  how  strong,  nor  how  multitudinous,  nor 
how  learned  and  astute  the  arguments  may  be  that  are 
adduced  to  prove  that  man,  as  to  character  and  destiny,  iS 
the  mere  result  of  chance,  or  of  circumstances  ;  merely  the 
result  of  a  power  over  which  he  has  no  control,  and  there- 
fore irresponsible  for  his  actions,  do  what  he  may ;  the  con- 
sciousness of  every  human  being  instantly  pours  contempt 
upon  them  all,  and  makes  it  certain  that,  within  fixed 
limits  prescribed  by  the  laws  of  his  being,  he  is  free  to  do,  or 
not  to  do,  and  responsible  for  what  he  does  ;  that  within 
certain  boundaries,  prescribed  by  Nature,  the  truth  and  justice 
of  the  following  requirement  are  self-evident :  Obey  and 
LITE,  DISOBEY  AND  DIE.  Self-coudemnation  and  self-inflicted 
suffering,  with  the  consciousness  that  they  are  deserved,  will 
ever  accompany  our  abnormal  acts,  despite  all  arguments  to 
prove  that  we  could  not  help  but  do  them,  and  that  we  ought 
not  to  suffer  for  what  we  were  obliged  to  do. 

I  have  remarked  that  the  Human  Race  is  a  Unit,  and  in 
all  essential  characteristics  alike,  so  that  any  one  of  that  Race 
may  be  instantly  distinguished  from  every  other  species  of 
animated  existences.  A  human  being  cannot  only  be  distin- 
guished from  every  other  animal,  but  each  one  can  be  recog- 
nized as  different  from  each  and  every  other  human  being. 
That  which  marks  the  difference  between  human  beings,  and 
enables  us  to  distinguish  one  from  another,  is  no  less  certain 


54  -  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

than  that  which  distinguishes  man  from  all  other  beings. 
Though  all  have  essentially  the  same  needs  and  capabilities, 
yet  each  one  differs  from  each  and  every  other  in  his  modes 
of  manifestation,  or  in  some  way. 

Intellectual  Powers. — We  group  together  certain 
operations  or  manifestations  of  the  psychical  organism,  and 
designate  them  as  intellectual  powers.  How  deeply  these 
powers  are  affected  by  organic  conditions,  we  may  not  be 
able  to  comprehend  fully ;  but  the  history  of  the  human 
intellect  is  but  one  great  fact,  going  to  demonstrate  the  inti- 
macy of  the  relation  between  the  intellectual  organization 
and  the  intellectual  destiny  of  the  soul.  This  lesson  is 
learned  most  fully  from  man's  intellectual  history — that  as 
are  the  organic  conditions  of  the  soul  and  body,  so  will  be 
the  action  of  the  intellectual  faculties  both  in  individuals  and 
communities.  As  to  Direction ;  Why  are  the  intellectual 
powers  of  one  directed  to  one  pursuit  and  of  another  to 
another?  See  the  intellect  of  Zera  Colburn  directed  to 
mathematical  calculations ;  that  of  Fulton  to  the  steam- 
engine  ;  that  of  Galileo,  to  Astronomy  ;  that  of  Newton,  to 
Natural  Philosophy ;  that  of  Locke  and  Edwards,  to  Meta- 
physics ;  that  of  one  to  Chemistry,  of  another  to  Geology,  of 
another  to  Botany ;  that  of  an  Audubon,  to  Ornithology ;  and 
that  of  Franklin,  to  Electricity.  Why  was  the  intellect  of 
Jesus  consecrated  to  the  salvation,  and  that  of  Napoleon  to 
the  destruction  of  human  beings  ?  Why  are  the  intellectual 
powers  of  one  devoted  to  Agriculture,  of  another  to  Mechan- 
ics, and  of  another  to  Commerce?  See  the  various  objects 
towards  which  various  minds  are  directed.  Trace  the  his- 
tory of  Agriculture,  or  the  art  of  producing  the  raw  mate- 
rials necessary  to  feed,  clothe,  and  house  man ;  trace  the 
history  of  Manufacturing,  or  the  art  of  preparing  those  raw 


DESTINY  DETEEjnNED   BY   OKGANIZATIOX.  55 

materials  for  use  ;  trace  the  history  of  Commerce,  or  the  art 
of  transporting  these  necessaries  of  life  from  town  to  town, 
from  city  to  city,  state  to  state,  and  from  continent  to  conti- 
nent. Then  trace  the  history  of  Governments  and  Religions, 
with  all  their  appendages  ;  the  history  of  Printing,  of  Books, 
Newspapers  and  Writing ;  the  history  of  Law,  Medicine  and 
Theology,  Railways  and  Electric  Telegraptis,  the  soul  using 
the  flashing  thunderbolt  to  herald  its  thoughts  and  affections 
around  the  world.  See  what  the  human  intellect  has  done  to 
create  and  perfect  means  to  save,  to  destroy,  and  to  govern 
human  beings,  and  to  feed,  clothe,  and  house  them !  Do  this, 
and  say,  then,  if  all  this  variety,  this  antagonism  in  results, 
of  the  action  of  man's  intellectual  powers,  can  be  accounted 
for  except  on  the  principle,  that  Destiny  is  determined  by 
Organization  ? 

It  is  vain  to  seek  to  account  for  this  by  educational  and 
adventitious  influences,  brought  to  bear  on  the  intellect  after 
birth.  The  direction  of  their  powers,  in  many,  is  manifested 
before  these  influences  are  brought  to  bear  upon  them.  Wit- 
ness Zera  Colburn,  Mozart,  Ilaydn,  Napoleon,  and  above  all, 
the  blind  slave-child,  who  has  show^n  such  astonishing  power 
of  music.  Indeed,  every  infant  in  the  nursery,  every  child 
in  the  school-room  and  on  tlie  play-ground,  shows  that  the 
human  intellect  is  directed  in  its  pursuits  by  a  power  above 
and  behind  all  post-natal  education.  The  education  that 
gave  direction  to  the  intellect  of  Moses,  and  of  Jesus,  of 
Mohammed,  of  Krishna,  of  Luther,  of  Columbus,  of  Hume, 
Knox,  Voltaire,  and  of  John  Brown,  was  given  in  the  pre- 
natal state.  So,  as  to  the  degree  of  intellectual  activity,  as 
to  acuteness,  quickness  and  endurance.  How  much  more 
acute,  intense  and  enduring  the  action  of  the  intellectual 
powers  of  some  minds  than  others  !  No  post-natal  influences 
can  explain  these  phenomena ;  only  that  pre-natal  influence, 


56  «HE   EMPIRE   OP  THE   MOTHER. 

which  controlled  the  organization  before  birth,  can  explain 
them ;  giving  to  one  an  organic  tendency  to  one  pursuit,  and 
to  another,  an  organic  bias  to  another ;  and  giving  to  this, 
the  power  of  intense,  concentrated,  and  enduring  activity,  and 
to  that,  the  power  only  of  feeble,  shattered,  iiTegular  and 
inefficient  action. 

How  many  cMldren  are  ruined  by  the  efforts  of  parents  to 
compel  them  to  educate  their  intellects  to  pursuits  towards 
which  they  have  no  organic  or  constitutional  tendency  !  By 
a  close  observation  of  facts,  all,  having  the  control  of  children, 
should  seek  to  acquaint  themselves  with  their  organic  and 
constitutional  tendencies,  and  then  give  them  all  possible 
assistance  to  enable  them  to  pursue  those  occupations  that 
most  coincide  with  their  birthright  tendencies.  Persons  sel- 
dom succeed  well  when  they  attempt  to  pursue  a  calling  for 
which  they  have  no  natural  bias,  and  no  hearty  relish. 

As  TO  THE  Appectional  and  Sympathetic  Powers. — 
Who  can  read  the  history  of  these  powers  of  the  soul  and 
observe  their  action  in  all  ages,  and  among  all  tribes  and 
peoples,  and  not  feel  how  much  our  affections  and  sympathies 
are  controlled  by  our  organic,  psychical  conditions?  How 
variously  directed  !  One  being  to  one  object,  and  another,  to 
another  ;  this  being  lovable  to  one,  that  to  another  ;  the  object 
that  seems  most  lovable  and  beautiful  to  one,  seeming  most 
unlovable  and  deformed  to  another ;  the  woman  that  is  earn- 
estly sought  as  a  wife  by  one,  being  as  earnestly  shunned  in 
that  relation  by  another ;  the  God  that  seems  worthy  the 
supreme  love  and  worship  of  the  Jew,  seeming  most  repul- 
sive to  the  gentle  Nazarene ;  what,  as  God,  calling  out  the 
highest  love  and  devotion  of  a  Mohammedan  or  Brahmin,  but 
exciting  only  scorn  and  contempt  in  the  Christian  ;  the  Christ, 
the  Saviour  of  Christendom,  being  the  cunning  impostor  and 


DESTINY   DETERMINED    BY    ORGANIZATION.  67 

juggler  of  the  Mussulman  and  Hindoo,  and  what  is  lovable 
and  sacred  to  a  Romanist,  being  contemptible  and  degrading 
to  the  Protestant.  What  can  account  for  this  difference  in 
the  direction  of  our  sympathy  and  love?  It  is  vain  to 
attribute  it  to  a  difference  in  the  post-natal  influences  that 
bear  upon  them,  for  it  is  more  marked  in  infants  and  children 
than  in  adults.  See  how  these  are  attracfed  by  some  and 
repelled  by  others !  Watch  them  in  their  pairings  and 
matings,  in  their  friendships  and  enmities !  So  as  to  degree, 
fidelity,  depth,  intensity  and  devotion  of  affection  and  sympa- 
thy. How  deep,  silent,  constant,  confiding  and  long-suffering 
are  they  in  some  ;  and  how  shallow,  clamorous,  obtrusive, 
fickle,  jealous,  irritable,  impatient  and  short-lived,  in  others ! 
How  various  the  modes  of  manifestation  !  In  one,  love  and 
sympathy  flowing  out  in  pet  names,  and  terms  of  endearment, 
in  kisses  and  personal  caresses,  as  well  as  in  deeds  of  justice 
and  kindness  ;  and  in  others,  only  in  practical  good  works, 
but  never  in  kisses,  caresses  and  endearing  words  ! 

Illustrations  of  this  are  found  wherever  the  relations  of 
husband  and  wife,  parent  and  child,  brother  and  sister,  friend 
and  friend  exist.  And  different  peoples  have  distinctive 
modes  of  expression.  IIow  diflerent  the  Italian  and  the 
Turk,  the  Frenchman  and  the  German,  the  Irish  and  the 
Scotch,  the  Spaniard  and  the  African,  the  Yankee  and  the 
Chinese,  in  the  nature  and  manifestations  of  their  affections 
and  sympathies.  No  difference  of  climate,  soil,  social  condi- 
tions, food,  and  education,  can  account  for  this  diversity. 
There  is  a  power  behind  them  all,  unseen,  unheard,  but  ever 
felt  and  ever  potent,  which  determines  these  varied  outward 
expressions  of  the  love  clement.  These  sympathetic  and 
affectional  phenomena  can  be  accounted  for  only  on  the  dif- 
ferences in  organic  conditions  and  constitutional  tendencies 
of  the  soul,  created  before  birth. 
3 


68  •THE    EINXPIKE    OP   THE   MOTHER. 

So  OF  THE  Passions  and  Appetites.  —  Note  their 
actions  in  individuals  and  communities,  in  different  tribes  and 
kingdoms.  Watch  their  manifestations  among  the  Indians 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  their  neighbors  the  Mormons  ; 
among  the  Yankees,  the  Chinese  and  Russians  ;  in  the  Slave 
States  and  Barbary  States ;  among  land  pirates  and  sea 
pirates ;  Laplanders  and  the  Bedouin  Arabs.  Each  tribe, 
state,  nation  and  people,  have  their  peculiar  ways  of  mani- 
festing anger,  envy,  jealousy,  revenge,  ambition  and  avarice. 
How  various  the  manifestations  among  children  !  Some  are 
born  with  an  organic  tendency  to  tea,  coffee,  tobacco,  alco- 
hol, opium,  and  other  narcotic  and  alcoholic  stimulants,  and 
some  with  a  deep-seated  aversion  to  these.  Some  have  a 
constitutional  tendency  to  steal  and  rob,  to  murder  and 
piracy.  Man-stealing  or  kidnapping,  is  a  prominent  charac- 
teristic of  the  Slave  States ;  man-killing,  of  the  people  of 
England,  France,  and  of  all  nations,  and  armies  of  disciplined 
man-killers  are  organized  and  maintained  to  gratify  this  pro- 
pensity. Ask  for  the  cause,  and  it  will  be  found  in  the  organic 
conditions  of  the  souls  of  the  different  people.  Theft  being 
organized  into  the  soul  of  one,  murder  and  piracy  into  that 
of  another  ;  the  spirit  and  idea  of  freedom  into  one,  slave- 
hunting  and  slave-driving  into  another.  Drunkenness,  war, 
negro-hatred  into  one,  total  abstinence,  peace,  and  respect  for 
human  rights,  into  others.  So  of  Presbyterianism,  Method- 
ism, Unitarianism,  Univei'^alism,  Calvinism,  Mohammedan- 
ism and  Hindooism,  and  sectarisms  of  all  kinds  are  organized 
into  the  soul  before  birth,  and  become  its  organic  conditions. 
Religious  views  and  customs  are  organized  into  the  souls  of 
all  people,  more  or  less.  A  revengeful,  sensual,  cautious, 
coarse  organization,  will  have  corresponding  conceptions  of 
God.  Each  must  see  God  in  the  mirror  of  his  own  soul. 
If  that  mirror  be  pure,  bright,  and  polished,  the  soul  will 


DESTINY   DETERMINED   BY   ORGANIZATION.  59 

have  a  clear,  briglit  conception  of  God;  but* if  our  mirror 
be  obscure,  we  shall  have  an  obscure  conception  of  God.  So 
our  worship  will  correspond  to  our  organization.  The  health- 
fully organized  soul,  alone,  can  worship  God  in  spirit  and  in 
truth.  Those  whose  souls  glow  with  love  and  good  will  to 
man,  will  see  and  worship  God  in  men,  women  and  children  ; 
those  who  have  little  regard  for  man,  will  see  and  worship 
God  in  times  and  places,  and  in  rites  and  ceremonies. 
Religion  refers  especially  to  the  relations  between  man  and 
man.  As  are  our  organic  psychical  conditions,  so  will  be 
our  conceptions  of  man  and  his  relations  to  man.  The 
gross,  sensual,  psychical  organism,  will  regard  the  distinction 
of  sex  as  a  mere  means  of  sensual  indulgence,  and  marriage 
simply  as  a  license  to  render  it  legal  and  respectable.  He 
will  see  woman  through  the  medium  of  his  own  animalism. 
"What  shall  be  said  of  tendencies  to  idiocy  and  insanity? 
Do  these  result  from  defects  in  the  organization  of  the  soul, 
or  of  the  body  ?  In  malformations  of  the  body  which  render 
it  impossible  for  the  soul  to  manifest  itself  truly  and  health- 
fully through  it,  or  in  permanent  defects  in  the  psychical 
organism?  This  question  will  one  day  receive  an  answer. 
I  cannot  give  it,  nor  can  any  one  in  the  present  imperfect 
knowledge  of  the  relations  between  the  body  and  soul.  But 
as  to  the  lying,  deceit,  dishonesty,  injustice,  licentiousness, 
theft,  robbery,  murder  and  tyranny  of  mankind,  these  may 
hereafter  be  found  to  result  more  from  defects  in  the  organic 
conditions  of  the  soul,  than  in  outward  surroundings. 

The  following  is  from  Draper's  "Human  Physiology": 
"  During  the  process  of  the  development  of  the  intellect  of 
man,  various  psychical  persuasions  in  succession  arise,  which 
are  frequently  imputed  to  education  or  tradition,  but  of  which 
the  origin  is  undoubtedly  to  be  traced  to  the  organization. 
Those  general  ideas  that  are  found  all  over  the  world,  among 


60  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

all  races  of  mankind,  whatever  may  be  the  climate  in  which 
they  live,  their  social  condition  or  religious  opinions,  —  ideas 
of  what  is  good  and  evil,  of  virtue,  of  the  efficacy  of  penance 
and  of  prayer,  of  rewards  and  punishments,  and  of  another 
world ;  these,  from  the  uniformity  of  their  existence  in  all 
ages,  and  in  all  places,  must  be  imputed  to  the  stamp  that 
has  been  put  upon  our  cerebral  organization.  Universal 
opinions  are  not  the  result  of  accident,  nor  always  of  tradi- 
tion. They  are  often  creations  of  the  mind,  arising  from 
peculiarities  of  constitution." 

This,  then,  is  Man ;  a  being  composed  of  two  organic 
structures  —  one  within  the  other  —  giving  to  it  life  and  mo- 
tion. A  kingdom  within  a  kingdom  —  the  treasures  of  which 
are,  as  yet,  but  little  known.  The  Interior  constructs  and 
controls  the  Exterior  kingdom,  under  the  direction  of  that 
God  who  controls  all  things.  The  body  exists  for  the  soul, 
not  the  soul  for  the  body.  The  soul  is  the  permanent,  ever- 
living,  ever-progressing  organism,  the  immortal  Man  or 
Woman  ;  the  body  is  but  an  incident  to  the  soul,  as  a  gar- 
ment is  to  the  body.  The  body  for  the  soul,  kot  the 
SOUL  for  the  body  !  Therefore,  never  sacrifice  the  soul 
to  the  body.  Never  dishonor  nor  degi-ade  the  soul  to  supply 
the  demands  of  the  body,  or  even  to  preserve  it  from  outrage 
and  death.  Keep  the  soul  pure  and  sacred,  whatever  becomes 
of  the  body.  In  an  harmoniously  organized  body  and  soul 
there  can  be  no  conflict.  The  demands  of  each  will  cor- 
respond with  the  demands  of  the  other. 

These  two  organisms  —  the  physical  and  psychical,  or  the 
body  and  soul  —  are  ever  acting  and  reacting  each  upon  the 
other.  Every  action  of  the  body,  every  pulsation  of  the 
heart,  every  effort  of  the  brain,  lungs,  stomach,  and  the  various 
vital  functions  of  the  body,  affect  the  condition  of  the  soul.  It 
is  very  hard  for  the  soul  to  keep  in  a  serene  and  happy  state 


DESTINY   DETERMINED   BY   ORGANIZATION.  61 

"while  the  body  is  tortured  with  nervous  headache,  or  jumping 
toothache,  or  agonizing  dyspepsia.  So  the  soul  affects  the 
body.  "When  the  psychical  organism  is  exercised  with  grief, 
sorrow,  anger,  revenge,  despondence,  or  any  intellectual  or 
affectional  derangement,  the  physical  organism  is  always  more 
or  less  affected  thereby.  The  health  and  life  of  the  body 
must  necessarily  be  deeply  affected  by  those  physical  condi- 
tions and  tendencies  that  were  organized  into  it  before  birth. 
So  the  health  and  life  of  the  soul  must  be  deeply  affected  by 
the  pre-natal  tendencies  that  w^ere  organized  into  it.  So  the 
destiny  of  each  organism  must  be  deeply  affected  by  the 
organic  conditions  of  the  other. 

The  power  that  controls  the  organization  must,  to  a  great 
extent,  if  not  entirely,  control  the  character  and  destiny  of 
the  man  or  w^oman  ;  inasmuch  as  human  life,  in  all  relations, 
results  from  organic  conditions  and  constitutional  tendencies, 
more  than  from  any  or  all  outward  surroundings.  "Where  is 
that  power  that  controls  the  organic  conditions  and  birthright 
tendencies  of  human  beings?  If  we  can  find  this,  we  find 
the  power  that  moulds  the  character  and  shapes  the  destiny 
of  individuals  and  nations. 


62  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


ORGANIZATION  DETERMINED  BY  MATERNAL  CONDITIONS. 

In  the  two  preceding  chapters  I  have  sho^vn,  that,  destiny 
IS  determined  by  organization,  ■\yhatever  influence, 
material,  domestic,  social,  political,  ecclesiastical,  commercial 
and  literary  surroundings  may  have  on  human  character 
and  destiny,  it  is  mainly  exerted  indkectly.  Home  Influences 
do  more  to  give  tone  and  direction  to  our  feelings,  thoughts 
and  aspirations,  and  to  our  outward  actions,  and  to  shape  our 
hourly,  daily,  and  eternal  destiny,  than  all  other  external 
influences  combined.  But  what  controls  men  and  women  in 
the  selection  of  life-companions  that  are  to  decide  what  those 
home-influences  shall  be?  For  the  influence  of  home,  for 
good  or  evil,  depends,  solely,  on  the  relations  that  exist 
between  the  husband  and  wife.  If  love  is  the  bond,  the 
influence  will  be  good ;  if  anything  else,  it  will  be  evil  and 
only  evil.  In  no  relation  is  the  truth  of  the  maxim,  that 
destiny  is  determined  by  organization,  so  clearly  made  mani- 
fest, as  in  that  of  husband  and  wife.  In  entering  into  the 
conjugal  relation,  in  their  loyalty  to  it,  and  in  their  treatment 
of  each  other  in  it,  the  phenomena  of  life  can  be  accounted 
for,  only,  by  regarding  them  as  the  results  of  the  organic 
conditions  of  the  actors  in  the  strange,  inexplicable  drama. 
No  adventitious,  outward  causes,  can  account  for  these  often 


ORGANIZATION  —  MATERNAL  CONDITIONS.  63 

unexpected  and  sad  results.  These  home-influences,  instead 
of  directly  controlling  the  organization  of  the  husband  and 
wife,  are  controlled  by  it.  So  that  the  character  of  any 
domestic  circle  may  be  known  by  the  character  of  the  organ- 
izations of  the  individuals  that  compose  it,  especially  by  that 
of  the  husband  and  wife ;  for,  as  is  their  organization,  so  is 
that  of  their  children.  What  controls  men  and  women  in 
seeking  wives  or  husbands  ?     Organic  conditions  —  mainly. 

So  of  Social  Relations^  Outside  of  Home.  External  influ- 
ences do,  indeed,  affect  us  deeply  in  our  daily  and  hourly 
life  and  destiny,  but,  only,  indirectly.  But  what  controls  us 
in  the  selection  of  friends  and  associates?  What  guides  us 
in  our  treatment  of,  and  manifestations  to  one  another,  in 
social  gatherings,  and  in  our  social  intercourse  generally? 
Our  organization,  unquestionably,  to  a  great  extent ;  and 
the  character  of  our  associates  is,  generally,  a  pretty  sure 
test  of  our  organic  conditions,  and  our  birthright,  constitu- 
tional tendencies.  Thus,  instead  of  our  organic  conditions 
being  controlled  by  our  social  surroundings,  these,  and  the 
destiny  they  bring  to  us,  are  determined  by  them.  As  is 
our  organization,  so  will  be  our  social  relations  and  destiny. 

So  of  our  Religion.  True,  our  destiny  is  affected  by  our 
theological  opinions  and  ecclesiastical  relations  ;  but  it  is  no 
less  true  that  these  opinions  and  relations  are  determined, 
mainly,  by  our  organizations.  No  matter  to  what  sect  of 
religionists  we  belong,  it  will  be  found  that  we  have  a  con- 
stitutional, pre-natal  tendency  to  the  opinions  and  practices 
of  that  sect.  The  Calvinist  will  be  found  to  have  an  organic 
bias  towards  a  stern  God  of  vengeance  ;  a  Methodist,  towards 
loud,  vociferous,  outward  demonstrations  ;  a  Quaker,  towards 
a  quiet,  contemplative  mode  of  worship.  So  throughout  all 
religions ;  as  is  our  organization,  so  will  be  our  religious 
opinions  and  customs. 


64  THE  EMPIRE  OP  THE  MOTHER. 

So  of  our  Occupations,  our  Amusements,  and  our  Political 
Relations.  As  a  general  rule,  as  is  our  organization,  so  will 
be  our  occupations,  our  amusements,  and  our  political  opin- 
ions and  practices.  Instead  of  being  directly  determined  by 
these,  our  organic  conditions  determine  what  they  shall  be. 
The  domestic,  social,  political,  religious,  literary  and  com- 
mercial relations  and  institutions  of  Massachusetts  and  South 
Carolina,  constitute  an  index  to  the  organic  conditions  and 
constitutional  tendencies  of  their  respective  peoples ;  the 
bias  of  the  people  of  the  former  is  to  knowledge,  justice^ 
freedom  and  civilization ;  that  of  the  people  of  the  latter  is 
to  ignorance,  injustice,  slavery,  theft,  robbery  and  barbarism. 
The  people  of  Massachusetts  are  prone  to  live  by  honest  and 
honorable  labor  ;  South  Carolina  is  prone  to  live  by  theft  and 
robbery,  and  by  making  merchandise  of  her  own  sons  and 
daughters. 

So  of  Climate,  Soil,  and  all  Maierial  Surroundings.  These 
do  not  directly  give  character  to  the  organic  conditions  of 
the  people,  but  our  organization  gives  character  to  them ; 
i.  e.,  these  affect  us  according  to  our  organization.  As  are 
our  organic  conditions,  so  will  be  the  impressions  made  on  us 
by  our  material  surroundings.  The  soul,  or  psychical  organ- 
ism, is  the  mirror  presented  to  us  by  the  mother,  to  enable 
us  to  behold  the  exterior  world  ;  and,  by  a  fixed  law  of  our 
being,  our  conceptions  of  external  objects  depend  on  the 
condition  of  that  mirror.  It  is  in  that  psychical  mirror  that 
we  behold  all  objects  outside  of  ourselves.  Our  conceptions 
of  God,  and  of  eternal  life  ;  our  conceptions  of  man,  and  his 
relations  to  God  and  immortality,  and  to  his  fellow-beings ; 
our  conceptions  of  the  distinction  of  sex,  of  its  nature  and 
its  object,  and  of  the  relations  between  men  and  women,  and 
of  the  mission  of  woman  to  man,  and  of  man  to  woman ;  in 
a  word,  all  our  conceptions  of  ourselves,  in  our  relations  to 


ORGANIZATION  —  IHATERNAL   CONDITIONS.  G5 

the  material,  intellectual,  social,  and  spiritual  universe,  so 
full  of  the  vast,  the  beautiful,  the  sublime,  the  mysterious 
and  incomprehensible,  are  mainly  characterized  by  those 
organic  conditions  and  constitutional  tendencies  that  our 
mothers  gave  to  us  in  our  pre-natal  life.  A  healthful,  har- 
monious psychical  organization,  or  soul-mirror,  will  reflect 
external  objects  to  us  as  they  are  ;  but  to  a  diseased,  discord^ 
ant  organization,  all  must  seem  distorted. 
•  Thus,  organization  determines  the  character  and  destiny ; 
but  who  or  what  determines  the  organization  ?  The  power 
which  controls  that,  controls  its  results.  Man  makes  the 
state  ;  who  makes  the  man  ?  Man  organizes  and  administers 
the  ecclesiastical,  governmental,  literary  and  commercial 
institutions  of  the  world ;  who  organizes  and  administers  the 
man  ?  Man  gathers  up  materials  and  builds  houses,  palaces, 
temples,  ships,  towns  and  cities ;  but  who  gathers  together 
the  materials  and  builds  up  the  man?  Man,  having  selected 
fitting  materials,  constructs  railroads,  locomotives,  steam- 
engines,  watches,  clocks,  thermometers,  barometers,  com- 
passes, telegraphs  and  chemical  apparatus,  and  all  the 
machinery  designed  to  prepare  the  raw  material  for  food  and 
raiment ;  but  who  gathers  together  the  fitting  materials  and 
forms  them  into  that  most  delicate,  most  mysterious,  wonder- 
ful and  potential  of  all  structures  —  a  living,  rational,  aspir- 
ing, immortal  man  ?  But  one  answer  can  be  given  to  these 
questions  ;  i.  e.,  the  Mother  !  So  far  as  human  agency  is 
concerned,  the  Mother  makes  the  Man  ;  the  father's  influ- 
ence being  exerted,  after  conception,  indirectly  through  the 
mother.  My  object  being  to  consider  the  Empire  of  the 
Mother,  I  shall  not  now  discuss  the  influence  of  the  father. 

"  God  gave  to  man  dominion  over  the  beasts  of  the  fields 
the  fowls  of  the  air,  and  the  fish  of  the  sea,"  but  to  whom 
did  God  give  dominion  over  man  ?    Not  to  kings  and  queens, 
3* 


66  THE  EMPIRE   OF  THE   MOTHER. 

nor  to  presidents  and  potentates ;  not  to  parliaments  and 
congresses,  nor  to  priests  and  politicians ;  not  to  church  and 
state,  nor  to  armies  and  navies ;  not  to  the  pulpit  and  the 
press,  nor  to  the  school  and  the  college  —  but  to  the  mother. 
These  all  have  their  place  as  means  of  controlling  human 
character,  and  shaping  human  destiny ;  but  to  the  mother 
hath  God  said,  "  thy  kingdom  is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and 
thy  dominion  is  without  end."  The  God  of  Nature  never 
committed  the  destiny  of  man,  as  individuals,  as  families,  as 
societies,  as  states  and  nations,  to  a  soulless  corporation  called 
a  church  or  government ;  but,  as  to  the  exercise  of  direction 
and  control  over  the  interior  and  exterior  life  of  man,  God 
says  to  the  mother,  "  under  me,  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and 
the  power,  and  the  glory."  The  mother,  not  the  pope  nor 
the  king,  not  the  church  nor  the  state,  is  God's  vicegerent,  to 
determine  the  place  of  each  upon  the  scroll  of  destiny. 

But  how  does  the  mother  thus  hold  the  sceptre  of  dominion 
over  individuals  and  states?  What  are  the  agencies  by 
which  her  power  is  exercised  ?  She  rules  the  world,  not  by 
brute  force  ;  for  armies  and  navies,  with  their  array  of  means 
to  mutilate  and  kill  human  bodies,  constitute  no  part  of  her 
power.  Military  force,  in  her  kingdom,  is  utterly  ignored  as 
an  element  of  strength.  Nor  does  she  rule  by  arbitrary, 
external  authority ;  nor  yet  by  capricious,  arbitrary  legisla- 
tion. The  machinery  of  violence,  by  which  human  bodies 
are  ruled  by  man,  is  unknown  to  her  sovereignty  over  the 
race.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  ballot ;  she  rules  no 
more  by  ballots  than  by  bullets.  She  does  indeed  rule  the 
great  human  family,  in  and  out  of  the  body,  by  laws ;  but 
these  laws  are  not  enacted  by  Congress  nor  Parliament ;  nor 
are  they  engraven  on  parchment ;  nor  are  they  executed  by 
constables  and  sheriffs ;  but,  through  the  powers  and  func- 
tions of  her  body  and  soul,  they  are  enacted  by  the  All-wise, 


ORGANIZATION  —  MATERNAL   CONDITIONS.  67 

the  All-just,  and  All-powerful ;  and,  through  her  means,  are 
engraven  on  the  body  and  soul  of  each  one,  as  essential  con- 
ditions of  life  and  health  ;  and  they  are  self-executing.  As  a 
birthright  inheritance,  the  Mother  presents  to  each  child  a 
code  of  just  and  perfect  laws,  which,  if  unobstructed,  would 
work  out  for  it  a  sublime  and  happy  destiny.  Blessed  is  that 
child  whose  birthright  code  is  not  dishonored  and  defaced  by 
the  presence  of  unconstitutional,  unnatural,  pernicious,  tem- 
porary by-laws. 

The  august  drama  of  human  life  ;  the  secret,  unseen  causes 
and  history  of  human  character  and  destiny,  may  be  written 
in  two  short  sentences,  i.  e. :    Destiny  is  determined  by 

ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION  IS  DETERJHNED  BY  MATER- 
NAL CONDITIONS.  The  story  of  the  internal  and  external 
experiences  of  individuals,  and  of  states  and  nations,  is  told 
in  these  two  expressions.  The  destiny  of  man,  whether  act- 
ing as  an  individual,  or  as  a  church,  nation,  or  empire,  is 
wrapt  up  in  his  organization  ;  the  character  of  that  organi- 
zation is  hidden  away  in  the  silent  depths  of  the  mother's 
organism.  Every  human  being  is  a  living  fact  to  demonstrate 
this.  Those  who  are  accustomed  to  trace  the  phenomena  of 
human  life,  as  manifested  in  individuals  and  combination,  to 
their  antecedents,  will  find  no  lack  of  facts  to  illustrate  this. 
Take  the  following. 

Organic  tendency  to  Useful  Labor,  D.  P.  is  a  woman  whose 
experience  is  instructive.  She  lives  but  to  labor ;  not  for 
love  of  gain,  but  from  the  love  of  useful  action.  She  never 
wastes  her  energies  in  labors  that  benefit  no  one ;  but  they 
are  ever  directed  to  something  useful.  A  restless,  anxious 
spirit,  w^hich  she  cannot  control,  is  ever  prompting  her  to 
useful  and  benevolent  action,  in  household  labors,  in  out-door 
exercise,  and  in  actions  that  are  beneficial  to  her  neighbors. 
From  childhood,  the  same  uncontrollable  dcsii-e  to  be  useful 


68  THE   EMPIRE   OF  THE   MOTHER. 

to  somebody,  has  led  her  onward  and  governed  hen  actions. 
The  Cause.  From  her  conception  to  her  birth,  one  irrepres- 
sible desire  governed  the  activities  of  her  mother.  All  her 
energies  of  soul  and  body  were  directed  to  useful  ends.  She 
was  ever  on  the  alert  to  find  opportunities  to  do  good  to 
somebody.  She  literally  went  about  doing  good,  and  ever 
found  it  "more  blessed  to  give  than  receive."  The  same 
tendencies  appeared  in  her  child  at  a,  very  early  age.  Even 
as  a  child,  she  was  ever  devising  some  plans  that  had  in 
view  the  good  of  others,  and  had  an  extraordinary  aptitude 
to  execute  her  own  benevolent  purposes.  Hers  was  a  rich 
and  glorious  inheritance.  Would  that  a  similar  organization 
could  be  the  birthright  legacy  of  every  child  from  its  mother. 
How  soon  would  human  beings  cease  to  inflict  injuries  on 
others  for  their  own  benefit. 

The  Child  Visitor.  Another  fact  to  illustrate  the  power 
of  the  mother  over  the  organic  conditions  of  her  child.  L.  F., 
ten  years  old,  never  can  rest  at  home.  She  is  ever  running 
here  and  there,  restless  as  a  wild  bird  in  a  cage,  just  from  the 
woods.  She  ever  pines  to  be  abroad.  Is  ever  teasing  her 
mother  to  let  her  go  visiting.  Knows  no  rest,  no  enjoyment, 
except  in  going  from  house  to  house,  making  calls,  and  get- 
ting up  parties  among  her  mates.  Visiting  seems  to  be  the 
one  overmastering  thought  and  passion  of  her  life.  Cause. 
The  father  was  a  hard  man,  a  drinking  man,  and  the  terror  of 
his  wife.  During  her  child's  entire  pre-natal  life,  to  avoid  him 
the  mother  was  abroad,  making  calls,  going  from  house  to 
house,  getting  up  parties  and  making  visits.  Her  entire 
waking  hours,  during  that  period,  were  thus  spent.  She 
saved  her  child  from  the  drunken  father's  influence  ;  but  she 
stamped  upon  it  the  stamp  of  a  restless  visitor,  and  unfitted 
her  for  any  steady,  useful  employment.  It  will  prove  a  sad 
legacy  to  the  child,  as  she  passes  on  to  womanhood,  and 


ORGANIZATION MATERNAL   CONDITIONS.  69 

enters  into  the  natural  relations  and  encounters  the  stern 
realities  of  life,  as  a  wife,  a  mother,  and  actor  in  the  great 
drama  of  humanity. 

In  every  family  and  neighborhood  are  to  be  found  facts 
that  strikingly  illustrate  the  truth  of  the  position,  that,  organ- 
ization is  determined  by  maternal  conditions  ;  that  the  con- 
ditions of  the  maternal  organism  do,  and  must,  of  necessity, 
to  a  great  extent,  determine  the  character  of  that  organiza- 
tion which  is  developed  within  it.  Indeed,  each  and  every 
man  or  woman  is  but  a  fact  which  serves  to  illustrate  and 
confirm  this  truth. 

3Iaternal  Associations.  Some  thirty  years  ago  it  was  my 
privilege  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  formation  of  many 
Maternal  Associations  —  the  object  of  which  was  to  receive 
and  give  light  in  regard  to  the  function,  the  responsibilities 
and  duties  of  maternity.  Only  mothers  composed  the  associ- 
ations. For  two  years  I  met  with  these  associations,  aver- 
aging over  one  a  week,  and  recorded  in  my  private  journal 
the  subjects  that  were  discussed  in  them,  the  average  attend- 
ance being*  about  twenty  mothers.  The  mothers  used  to  give 
accounts  of  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  their  children  ;  of 
their  dispositions  and  tempers  ;  their  aptitudes  and  inclina- 
tions in  regard  to  food,  drink,  dress,  amusements,  and  occu- 
pations ;  of  their  peculiar  tendencies  to  this  or  that  occupation 
or  amusement.  The  transmission  of  physical  and  psychical 
conditions  and  qualities  from  mothers  to  their  children ;  the 
pre-natal  education  and  gestational  life  and  history  of  their 
children  were  freely  discussed,  and  the  bearing  of  the 
impressions  made  on  children  before  birth,  on  their  character 
and  happiness  afterwards  ;  the  bearings  of  maternal  condi- 
tions during  the  pre-natal  life  of  children  on  their  organiza- 
tion, and  on  the  character  and  destiny  that  should  result 
from  it ;  the  pre-natal  rights  of  children  to  a  love  origin,  and 


70  THE   EJIPIRE    OP   THE    MOTHER. 

to  heultliy  bodies  aud  healthy  souls,  and  to  a  welcome  into 
life  from  both  parents  and  from  the  entire  community ;  to 
what  extent  the  character  and  destiny  of  a  child  can  be 
known  from  a  knowledge  of  the  diseases  that  lurk  in  the 
mother's  blood,  and  of  the  intellectual,  social  and  spiritual 
conditions  of  her  soul ;  the  relation  between  the  mother's 
food,  drink,  labor  and  amusements  and  the  conditions  of  her 
blood,  and  between  her  blood  and  the  organic  existence,  and 
the  character  and  destiny  of  her  child ;  these  and  like  sub- 
jects were  freely  and  anxiously  discussed  in  those  meetings 
of  mothers.  The  plan  of  keeping  a  written  record  of  their 
physical  and  psychical  conditions  and  experiences  during  the 
pre-natal  development  of  their  children,  was  suggested  to  those 
mothers ;  that  they  might  be  able  to  see  to  what  extent  the 
post-natal  character  and  destiny  of  those  children  corresponded 
with  the  conditions  and  experiences  of  their  mothers  during 
their  pre-natal  life.  Many  of  those  mothers  adopted  that  plan  ; 
and  the  results  were  astounding  to  themselves.  Not  one  of 
those  mothers  but  was  thoroughly  convinced  that  Organization 
was  determined  by  maternal  conditions.  Some  of  those  jour- 
nals were  put  into  my  hands  to  be  read,  and  that  I  might  take 
from  them  such  extracts  as  I  could  make  useful  in  discussing, 
publicly,  the  pre-natal  rights  of  children,  the  responsibility  of 
mothers,  and  their  empire  over  the  character  and  destiny  of 
the  race.  I  learned  more  concerning  the  hidden  sources 
of  the  peculiarities  and  manifestations  in  the  individual,  do- 
mestic, social,  political  and  religious  life  of  man,  from  those 
mothers,  than  I  had  ever  learned  before  from  books,  schools 
and  colleges.  If  intelligent,  loving  and  observing  mothers 
would  keep  records  of  their  physical  and  psychical  conditions 
during  the  pre-natal  life  and  education  of  their  children,  it 
would  be  of  more  value  to  the  world,  and  do  more  to  give  a 
true  insight  into  the  nature,  character  and  destiny  of  man, 


ORGANIZATION  —  MATERNAL   CONDITIONS.  71 

than  histories  of  states  and  nations.  The  value  of  maternal 
associations  for  a  free  and  full  interchange  of  thought  and 
feeling,  touching  the  power  of  the  mother  over  the  organiza- 
tion of  her  child,  and  through  that,  over  its  character  and 
destiny  after  its  birth,  can  never  be  overestimated.  When 
the  Age  of  Fiction,  in  regard  to  man,  his  character,  his  rela- 
tions and  destiny,  shall  have  given  place  to  the  Age  of  Fact, 
and  these  shall  be  regarded  as  the  results  of  antecedents  that 
may  be  controlled,  to  a  great  extent,  by  human  agency,  then 
will  the  empire  of  woman,  as  a  mother,  be  known  and  appre- 
ciated. It  will  be  seen  that  her  organism  is  the  hiding-place 
of  that  power  which  watches  over  and  controls  the  destiny  of 
individuals  and  of  nations  ;  and  that,  through  the  mother,  not 
through  the  church,  nor  the  state,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  to 
be  incarnated  in  human  life,  and  his  "  will  be  done  on  earth 
as  it  is  in  heaven."  If  the  prayer,  "■  Thy  kingdom  come^^'  is 
ever  to  be  answered  on  earth,  it  must  be  answered,  not  by 
the  church,  nor  the  state,  but  by  the  mother.  To  the  mother, 
under  God,  must  be  ascribed  the  glory  of  that  event,  if  it 
ever  occurs. 


72  THE  EMPIRE  OP  THE  MOTHER. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


ORGANIC  EXISTENCE  — WHERE  FORMED? 

The  question  arises  —  Has  the  mother  any  power  over  the 
quality  of  the  materials  of  which  the  organism  of  her  child, 
body  and  soul,  shall  be  formed,  and  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  these  materials  shall  be  put  together  ?  The  question 
is  direct,  plain,  and  easy  to  be  understood ;  but  put  in  words 
such  as  we  use  in  regard  to  any  structure,  organic  or  inor- 
ganic, whether  the  result  of  human  or  divine  agency. 
Whether  we  look  at  an  elephant  or  a  fly,  a  man  or  a  muscle, 
a  ship  or  a  clock,  three  questions  naturally  arise —  Who 
made  it?  Of  ivhat  is  it  made?  How  is  it  made?  So  in 
regard  to  the  human  organism,  or  person ;  in  examining  it, 
we  naturally  ask —  Who  made  it?  Of  ivhat  is  it  made?  Hoiu 
is  it  made?  I  am  considering  human  beings  as  to  their 
existence,  character  and  destiny,  solely  from  the  stand-point 
of  human  agency ;  more  especially  of  the  agency  of  the 
mother. 

I  have  said  that  the  parents  of  each  child  are  responsible 
for  its  existence,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  result  of  their  united 
and  voluntary  agency.  The  mother  is  as  really  responsible 
for  her  child's  existence  as  is  the  gardener  for  the  existence 
of  a  rose,  as  the  mechanic  for  the  existence  of  a  house,  as 
the  farmer  for  the  existence  of  a  field  of  wheat,  which  had 
never  existed  but  for  their  agency.     Arsenic  is  an  enemy  to 


ORGANIC    EXISTENCE WHERE    FORMED?  73 

animal  life.  I  make  it,  take  it,  and  die.  Who  kills  me? 
Food  is  a  law  of  life.  I  refuse  to  take  it,  and  die.  Who 
kills  me?  No  one  doubts  my  responsibility  here.  My 
death  is  the  result  of  my  own  agency. 

So  the  act  of  the  mother  is  the  antecedent  of  the  child's 
existence.  Every  mother  should  feel  that  the  whole  respon- 
sibility rests  on  her,  as  really  as  if  no  other  being  had  to  do 
with  it ;  for  so  i1>  does.  I  do  not  say  she  is  alone  in  the 
responsibility,  for  she  is  not ;  the  same  amount  of  responsi- 
bility rests  with  the  father.  He  does  not  sliarc  it  with  her. 
There  can  be  no  division,  no  sharing  of  responsibility  in  the 
Chancery  of  Heaven.  A  million  vote  for  slavery,  or  for 
war.  Each  of  them  is  responsible  before  God  for  all  the 
wrongs  and  outrages  that  belong  to  those  evils,  and  without 
which  they  cannot  exist.  If  the  slaveholder  is  a  thief,  a  rob- 
ber, a  kidnapper,  a  ruffian  and  a  land-pirate,  the  man  who 
votes  for  slavery  is  the  same,  and  ought  to  be  and  will  be,  ere 
long,  so  regarded  and  treated.  So  the  responsibility  of  the 
child's  existence  rests  wholly  and  undividedly  with  each  pa- 
rent. The  mother  is  as  responsible  as  if  it  resulted  from 
her  agency  alone  ;  so  is  the  father  ;  for  the  exertion  of  their 
power  to  give  existence  to  a  child  was  a  matter  of  choice 
and  not  of  necessity.  The  responsibility  of  each  is  independ- 
ent of  the  other. 

But  the  question  —  Of  what  materials  is  that  organism 
made?  and  how  are  they  put  together?  would  lead  to  a 
description  of  its  chemical  analysis  and  of  the  laws  of  combi- 
nation, which,  though  of  deep  interest,  is  not  pertinent  to  my 
object.  But  the  question  regarding  the  mother's  power  over 
the  hind  of  materials  of  which  it  shall  be  composed,  and  the 
manner  of  their  combination,  exactly  accords  with  the  end  at 
which  I  aim.  In  answering  this  query  I  must  recur  to  some 
facts  relating  to  our  organic  existence  and  conditions.     One 


74  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

of  these  facts  is  suggested  by  the  inquiry  —  ivhere  is  the 
Human  Organism  made  up  ?  To  this  query  but  one  answer 
can  be  given,  i.  e., 

Fact  First.  —  The  organic  existence  of  every  Child 
is  begun  and  completed  within  the  organism  of  the 
Mother. 

The  question  is  not,  where  was  the  first  human  organism, 
or  the  first  man  and  woman  developed  or  constructed? 
However  interesting  this  might  be,  as  a  matter  of  specula- 
tion, we  have  no  facts  to  guide  us  in  such  an  investigation. 
As  well  ask  —  Where  was  God  developed?  so  far  as  facts 
are  concerned.  It  may  be  that  in  the  future  progress  of 
mind  in  knowledge,  facts  will  be  brought  to  light  to  justify 
us  in  some  fixed  and  certain  conclusions  in  regard  to  the 
place  where  the  first  human  germs  were  developed.  I  think 
we  may,  from  ascertained  facts,  assume  the  truth  of  the  fol- 
lowing conclusions :  — 

That  the  germ  existed  before  the  human  organism  existed. 
As  the  acorn  existed  before  the  oak,  so  the  germ  existed 
before  the  man. 

That  the  distinction  of  sex  is  in  the  germ  ;  that  in  the  pro- 
cess of  development,  wherever  that  may  have  been  effected, 
the  masculine  germ  assumed  an  organism,  adapted  to  express 
its  peculiar  nature  and  to  respond  to  its  peculiar  demands ; 
and  the  feminine  germ,  an  organism,  suited  to  its  nature  and 
necessities.  So  that,  by  a  fixed  law  of  sexuality,  wherever 
the  one  assumes  a  living,  visible,  tangible  form,  the  other 
must  accompany  it  as  a  necessity  of  its  being,  in  order  to 
meet  an  ever-present  demand  of  its  existence,  and  to  its 
perfection  and  happiness  ;  to  its  complete  salvation. 

That  the  human  organism  —  body  and  soul  —  is  formed  of 
elements,  or  substances,  that  are  inherent  in  and  derived  from 
this  planet.    Whatever  these  elements  may  be,  and  whatever 


ORGANIC   EXISTENCE WHERE   FORMED?  75 

manifestations  tliey  may  make  after  they  are  constructed  into 
human  forms,  they  are  all  derived  from  this  planet ;  so  that 
man  is,  in  truth,  of  the  earth.  No  matter  what  names  are 
given  to  that  organism  and  to  different  parts  ;  call  one  part 
body,  and  another  soul ;  one  part  flesh,  and  another  spirit ; 
one  part  matter,  another  mind ;  one  mortal,  the  other 
immortal ;  one  human,  the  other  divine  ;  it  is  all  the  same  : 
all  men  and  women,  in  their  entire  nature,  are  made  up  of 
elements  derived  from  this  planet.  So  of  every  mineral, 
vegetable,  and  animal  production  on  the  earth  ;  the  substances 
of  which  they  are  made,  are  derived  from  the  planet  on  which 
they  exist.  So  in  regard  to  all  the  planets  that  traverse 
space  ;  whatever  forms  exist  in  Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mercury,  or 
any  other  planet,  derive  the  materials  of  which  they  are  com- 
posed, from  that  planet  on  which  they  have  their  being. 

Waiving  all  further  remarks  on  these  topics,  we  know  the 
fact,  that  the  organic  existence  of  every  human  being  is 
begun  and  completed  within  the  organism  of  the  mother. 
From  the  moment  in  which  she  takes  charge  of  the  germ  of 
a  new  life,  and  it  is  located  in  its  natural  and  appropriate 
place  for  development,  a  process  is  commenced,  which,  if 
undisturbed,  must  result,  by  a  fixed  law  of  generation,  in  the 
formation  of  a  human  body  and  soul.  Elements  or  materials 
are  collected  and  gathered  around  that  germ,  and  so  arranged 
and  blended  with  it  as  to  develop  from  it  bones,  muscles, 
nerves,  brains,  heart,  lungs,  stomach,  liver,  eyes,  ears,  and 
every  organ  essential  to  make  a  human  body ;  and  also  a 
soul,  or  life-principle,  or  vital  and  motive  power,  with  all  its 
powers  to  think,  reason,  will,  love,  and  to  present  all  the 
phenomena  and  manifestations  that  demonstrate  the  presence 
of  a  human  soul.  All  these  essential  ingredients  and  attri- 
butes of  the  human  organism  are  developed  from  that  germ 
by  a  process  of  selection,  accumulation,  assimilation,  distribu- 


76  THE  EMPIRE  OP  THE  MOTHER. 

tion  and  organization.  In  the  brief  space  of  nine  months, 
that  which  was  scarcely  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  and  which, 
when  seen  through  a  microscope,  seemed  but  an  oblong  or 
square  cell,  called  the  germ-cell,  assumes  the  form  of  a 
human  being,  with  all  the  organs  and  attributes  of  a  man  or 
a  woman. 

This  most  mysterious,  inexplicable  and  wonderful  process 
of  developing  that  minute  cell  into  a  human  body  and  soul, 
is  begun  and  completed  within  the  consecrated  precincts  of 
the  maternal  organism,  and  beneath  the  pulsation  of  the 
maternal  heart.  Consider  the  nature,  the  character,  the 
power  and  destiny  of  the  being  that  is  to  result  from  the 
process  that  is  going  on  within  that  sacred  enclosure  !  See 
the  part  which  it  must  act  in  the  great  drama  of  life  ;  the 
theatre  on  which  it  is  to  act,  and  the  countless  millions  that 
are  to  be  its  companions ;  consider  its  pathway  into  the 
unending  future,  the  obstacles  that  lie  in  its  way,  and  the 
stern  and  terrible  conflicts  it  must  encounter.  Who  can  con- 
template the  results  of  that  developmental  process,  without 
an  overwhelming  sense  of  the  gi'and  and  the  august,  as  well 
as  of  the  most  endearing  affection  and  tenderness !  All 
that  is  pure,  holy,  loving,  gentle,  and  God-like  in  our  nature 
is  called  into  action,  as  we  trace  the  history  of  a  life-germ 
of  humanity  in  its  process  of  development  into  a  living 
human  organism,  wdthin  the  organism  of  woman.  All  that 
have  been  born  of  woman  in  the  dead  Past,  all  who  consti- 
tute the  living  Present,  and  all  who  are  to  exist  on  this  planet 
in  the  hidden  Future,  have  passed,  or  must  hereafter  pass, 
through  this  unfolding  process  within  her  organism ;  the 
Holy  of  Holies  of  that  great  temple  of  humanity  Avhich  is  to 
enlarge  its  dimensions,  and  grow  more  symmetrical  and  beau- 
tiful in  the  cycles  of  Eternity.  From  woman's  organism 
must  come  those  organic  conditions  and  inborn  tendencies 


ORGAls^C   EXiStEXCE  —  WHERE   FOEilED  ?  77 

that  are  to  shape  the  character  and  control  the  destiny  of  the 
future  of  the  human  race. 

Max  !  Behold  the  organism  of  woman !  Look  upon  it 
tenderly  and  reverently,  for  within  it  God  has  hidden  the 
scroll  of  destiny  to  individuals,  families,  states  and  nations. 
There  God  has  laid  away  the  book  of  his  laws  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  race.  Oh  man  !  spare  the  person  of  woman. 
Harm  it  not.  But  ever  anxiously  labor  to  develop  it  in  all 
its  functions,  into  healthful  and  vigorous  activity,  and  into 
the  perfection  of  grace  and  beauty. 

Husband  !  Behold  the  organism  of  your  wife.  Treat 
it  tenderly  and  reverently.  Proudly  and  graciously  bow 
your  manly  soul  before  it  in  heartfelt  and  earnest  worship  ; 
for  within  that  form,  so  fondly  cherished,  and  so  protectingly 
held  to  your  heart,  God  has  hidden  your  life  as  a  husband 
and  a  father.  As  a  husband,  would  you  have  your  heart 
cheered,  your  life  made  joyous,  and  your  home  your  heaven, 
by  the  sustaining  sympathy,  the  joyous  presence,  and  all- 
trusting  love  of  a  healthy,  happy  wife  ?  As  a  father,  would 
you  have  around  you  the  glad  hearts,  the  bright  faces,  and 
merry  voices  of  healthy  children  ?  Then  most  tenderly  and 
reverently  cherish  and  protect  from  all  harm,  the  person  of 
your  wife  ;  for  within  that  sacred  temple,  so  beautiful  and 
consecrated  to  you,  are  concealed  the  purity,  the  peace,  the 
dignity,  the  glory,  the  very  angel  guardian  of  your  home. 

Father  !  Tenderly  and  reverently  guard  and  cherish 
the  organism  of  your  daughter.  In  infancy,  childhood  and 
youth,  anxiously  and  constantly  protect  it  from  harm,  as  you 
would  your  own  soul ;  for  within  that  organism  is  written 
the  history,  not  only  of  individual  men  and  women,  but  of 
the  homes,  the  states  and  kingdoms  of  the  Future.  Be 
tender  of  that  form,  so  beautiful  and  sacred  to  you,  for  from 


78  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

it  are  to  issue  life  or  death,  joy  or  sorrow,  to  the  people  of 
the  future. 

Brother  !  Tenderly  and  reverently  cherish  the  organism 
of  your  sister,  and  guard  it  from  all  harm.  Let  no  injury, 
no  disease,  no  suffering  come  to  it  which  you  can  ward  off. 
Consecrate  your  youthful  zeal,  your  brotherly  sympathy, 
affection  and  energy,  to  shield  that  loved  and  beautiful  sis- 
terly form  from  all  harm,  for  in  it  may  be  enshrined  the 
destiny  of  unborn  millions. 

What  are  banks,  railways,  currency  and  commerce,  in  their 
relations  to  the  power,  the  stability,  prosperity  and  perpetuity 
of  states  and  kingdoms,  compared  to  the  organism  of  woman? 
The  organic  existence  of  all  their  subjects  with  all  the  condi- 
tions and  tendencies,  the  beauty,  health  and  vigor  that  pertain 
to  it,  must  be  begun  and  completed  in  that  organism. 

Why  should  not  governments  look  after  the  health,  the 
beauty,  the  perfection,  and  the  power  of  that  source  from  which 
all  their  citizens  are  to  derive  their  existence,  their  health, 
energy  and  powers  of  endurance,  and  the  state  its  prosperity, 
its  protection,  and  glory  ?  They  should.  The  health  of  the 
Maternal  Organism  will  be  a  prominent,  perhaps  the  most 
prominent  object  of  consideration  to  a  government  that  con- 
sults the  physical,  intellectual,  social  and  spiritual  elevation 
and  happiness  of  its  subjects,  and  that  wisely  seeks  to  save 
its  citizens  from  the  miseries  of  drunkenness,  war  and 
slavery ;  to  avert  from  them  disease,  and  give  them  health, 
and  to  insure  to  them  life,  liberty  and  happiness.  When 
legislators  and  statesmen  shall  see  and  appreciate  the  relation 
of  the  maternal  organism  to  the  peace,  prosperity,  stability 
and  glory  of  states  and  nations,  then  will  governments  make  the 
health  of  woman  the  object  of  their  most  anxious  solicitude. 

Is  it  a  wonder  that  the  human  soul  should  cling  so  tena- 


ORGAiaC   EXISTENCE WHERE   FORMED?  79 

ciously,  SO  tenderly  and  so  trustingly  to  the  mother,  within 
whose  sacred  and  consecrated  organism  the  organic  existence 
of  all  are  perfected?  Within  which,  whatever  is  beautiful, 
symmetrical,  delicate,  complicated  and  vigorous  in  our  bodies, 
and  whatever  is  rational,  intuitional,  clairvoyant,  loving, 
thinking,  living  and  immortal  in  our  souls,  was  organized 
into  us  and  made  essential  attributes  of  corporeal  and  incor- 
poreal, of  present  and  eternal  life?  Is  it  strange  that  the 
purest,  most  sacred  and  endearing  affections  of  the  human 
heart  should  twine  around  the  maternal  organism  ?  Whether 
in  the  bright  looks  and  elastic  movements  of  the  young 
mother,  or  in  the  matronly  dignity  of  middle  life,  or  the 
decay  and  decrepitude  of  age,  that  sacred  form  is  encircled 
with  hallowed  beauty,  and  radiant  with  glory.  Man  may 
set  at  nought  the  restraints  of  church  and  state,  but  the  power 
of  the  mother  can  never  be  wholly  and  permanently  cast  off. 
This,  like  the  power  of  God,  holds  him  in  a  grasp  which 
never  can  be  broken. 

In  this  planet  exist  all  the  materials  that  are  necessary  to 
the  formation  of  a  living  human  organism,  with  all  its  capa- 
bilities and  its  distinctive  attributes.  These  materials  must 
be  gathered  up,  prepared,  put  together,  assimilated,  organ- 
ized and  vitalized,  and  made  into  living  men  and  women. 
This  work,  so  full  of  love  and  tenderness,  so  delicate,  so 
complicated,  so  august,  so  replete  with  the  destiny  of  indi- 
viduals, and  of  states  and  kingdoms,  and  before  which  the 
formation  and  administration  of  governments  sink  into  insig- 
nificance, must  be  begun  and  completed  not  only  within  the 
maternal  organism,  but  under  the  direction  and  control  of 
that  plastic  power  by  which  it  is  vitalized.  Of  all  its  attri- 
butes or  powers,  this  plasticity  of  the  maternal  organism, 
this  power  to  gather  up,  to  combine,  to  assimilate,  and 
organize  the  elements  of  this  planet  into  human  forms,  and 


80  THE  EMPIRE  OP  THE  MOTHER. 

to  vitalize  those  forms,  and  make  them  living  and  immortal 
souls,  is  the  most  mysterious  and  sublime.  Man  is  not 
invested  with  that  power ;  it  is  the  sole  and  distinctive  attri- 
bute of  woman.  Man  may  gather  up  the  materials  of  the 
earth  that  are  scattered  here  and  there,  and  build  ships  and 
houses,  locomotives,  railroads,  clocks,  watches,  cities  and 
palaces ;  states  and  nations  may  gather  up  materials  and 
construct  and  manage  armies  and  navies,  with  all  the  appa- 
ratus of  war ;  but  men,  whether  acting  as  individuals  or 
states  and  kingdoms,  can  never  gather  up,  combine  and 
organize  the  materials  of  this  planet  into  the  bodies  and 
souls  of  men  and  women.  This  power,  the  most  energizing 
and  living  with  which  God  has  endowed  human  beings,  is 
woman's  sole  and  exclusive  prerogative  ;  and  it  invests  her 
with  majesty  and  glory,  second  only  to  that  which  surrounds 
the  Almighty.  The  power  of  Victoria  as  a  Queen,  is  con- 
temptible and  evanescent  compared  to  the  power  of  Victoria 
as  a  Mother.  As  a  Queen,  all  she  does  is  comparatively 
trifling  in  value  and  evanescent  in  duration  ;  but,  as  a  Mother, 
she  gathers  up  the  forces  and  materials,  innate  in  the  planet, 
and  fashions  them  into  living  organisms  but  little  lower  than 
angels,  crowns  them  with  glory  and  honor,  and  stamps  on 
them  the  image  of  God,  and  the  impress  of  eternity. 

This  power,  I  have  said,  is  woman's  exclusive  prerogative. 
The  father  has  no  direct  control  over  the  organization  of  the 
child  after  conception.  The  process  of  organization  does  not 
commence  till  the  mother  takes  charge  of  the  germ,  and  it  is 
placed  within  reach  of  its  proper  nutriment.  Therefore,  the 
father  can  influence  the  organic  existence  of  the  child,  only, 
by  his  power  over  the  germ,  before  the  mother  takes  charge 
of  it,  and  by  influencing  it,  through  her  thoughts  and  feelingSj 
after  conception.  Before  the  mother  takes  charge  of  the 
germ,  the  father  may  stamp  upon  it  his  own  peculiarities) 


ORGANIC    EXISTENCE WHERE    FORMED?  81 

whether  for  heahh  or  disease,  whether  for  happiness  or 
misery  ;  and  these  peculiarities  may  become  prominent  char- 
acteristics of  the  child  after  it  is  born  ;  but  after  conception, 
the  father  can  have  no  control  over  the  organization  of  the 
child,  except  through  his  power  over  the  affections  and  sym- 
pathies of  the  mother.  The  father  may  deeply  affect  the 
character  and  destiny  of  the  child ;  but  his  conditions  cannot 
be  organized  into  it  as  are  the  conditions  of  the  mother ; 
because  its  organic  existence  is  not  begun  and  completed  in 
his  organism,  but  in  hers.  The  mother's  power  over  the 
constitutional  and  organic  tendencies  and  predispositions  of 
the  child  must  of  necessity  be  all  but  absolute  ;  inasmuch  as 
under  the  action  of  the  forces  of  her  organism,  the  entire 
process  of  organization  is  performed. 

Much  might  be,  ought  to  be,  and  will  be  said  about  the 
power  of  the  father  over  the  character  and  destiny  of  his 
child,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  that  power  is  brought  to 
bear  on  its  organization,  both  before  its  conception,  and 
between  its  conception  and  birth.  Especially  will  the  treat- 
ment of  the  mother  by  the  father  of  her  child  during  its 
gestational  development,  and  when  all  the  energies  of  her 
body  and  soul  should  be  left  perfectly  free  from  all  other 
sources  of  exhaustion,  to  concentrate  themselves  on  the  just 
and  rightful  performance  of  the  mighty  and  momentous  work 
in  which  she  is  engaged  —  that  of  giving  a  healthy  and 
perfect  organization  to  her  child  —  become  a  subject  of  most 
anxious  thought  and  inquiry  to  every  father,  to  every  friend 
of  progress,  and  to  every  church  and  state,  whose  aim  is  the 
elevation  and  happiness  of  man.  But  my  subject  is  the 
empire  of  the  mother. 
4 


82  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  HTJMAN  ORGANISM  —  WHENCE  ITS  MATERIALS? 

What  power  has  the  mother  over  the  quality  of  the  mate* 
rials  of  which  her  child  is  composed,  and  over  the  manner  in 
which  they  are  put  together  ?  Has  she  any?  If  any,  what? 
I  refer  to  the  periods  of  gestation  and  lactation.  As  proof 
that  she  has  power  over  the  matter  and  manner  of  its  organi- 
zation, I  have  adduced  the  fact,  that  the  organic  existence  of 
every  child  is  begun  and  completed  within  the  organism  of 
the  mother.     To  this  end,  I  would  present  another  fact,  i.  e. : 

Fact  Second.  —  The  Elements  of  which  the  Child  is 

FORMED  COME  DIRECTLY  FROM   THE   MOTHER's  BlOOD. 

To  the  question — Whence  the  materials  of  which  the  child, 
previous  to  birth,  is  composed?  but  one  answer  can  be  given 
—  tlie  mother'' s  hlood.  From  whatever  source  they  may  be 
derived,  originally,  whether  from  Earth,  Herschel,  Saturn,  or 
some  other  planet,  Y»^e  know  that  the  maternal  blood  is  the 
only  direct  channel  through  which  all  must  come,  which  is 
necessary  to  make'up  the  child's  living  organism,  previous  to 
birth.  From  the  moment  in  which  the  developmental  process 
begins,  no  other  source  is  open  to  furnish  materials  for  its 
growth.  It  may  be  asked  —  Whence  the  materials  to  form 
the  maternal  blood  ?  No  matter  how  this  may  be  answered  ; 
whether  that  be  composed  of  elements  derived  from  light, 
heat,  air,  water,  earth,  vegetable  or  animal  food,  or  from  all 


THE    ORGANISM WHENCE    ITS    3IATERIALS  ?  83 

combined,  from  this  or  from  some  other  planet,  —  the  fact  is 
before  us,  clear  and  unmistakable,  that  the  blood  of  the 
mother  is  the  only  source  of  all  direct  nutrition  during  the 
pre-natal  life  of  the  child ;  till  it  assumes  the  form  of  a 
human  being  complete  in  all  its  parts,  and  prepared  for  an 
existence  independent  of  the  mother. 

That  this  is  true  of  the  visible,  or  flesh  and  blood  organ- 
ism, no  one  will  dispute.  By  a  process  of  chemical  analysis, 
it  is  demonstrated  to  the  physical  senses  that  all  the  elements 
that  compose  the  human  body  are  found  in  tlie  blood  of 
woman  ;  and  the  means,  by  which  they  are  conveyed  to  the 
growing  child,  can  be  made  manifest.  So  it  can  be  known, 
as  any  fact,  made  evident  to  the  senses,  can  be  known,  that 
all  which  goes  to  make  up  each  and  every  part  of  the  human 
body,  before  birth,  comes  directly  from  this  source.  A  per- 
fect physical  organism  must  have  bones,  muscles,  sinews, 
nerves,  heart,  brain,  stomach,  lungs,  eyes,  ears,  &c.  ;  and  all 
these,  though  so  different  in  their  structure,  use,  and  appear- 
ance, must  all  be  derived  from  one  and  the  same  source. 
Therefore,  all  the  elements  necessary  when  properly  selected 
and  put  together,  to  make  these  different  organs  and  parts  of 
a  human  organism,  must  exist  in  the  blood  of  woman. 

So  far  as  the  body  is  concerned,  all  this  can  be  made  cer- 
tain by  a  demonstration  which,  like  figures,  cannot  lie.  The 
eye,  the  brain,  the  heart,  the  stomach,  and  every  other  part 
of  the  system  can  be  analyzed,  the  component  parts  of  each 
separated  and  subjected  to  the  inspection  of  the  senses  ;  and 
each  separate  part  of  these  organs,  and  of  the  whole  body,  be 
found  in  the  maternal  blood.  So  that  no  doubt  can  exist, 
that  all  the  materials  that  go  to  make  up  the  yhysical  organ- 
ism before  birth,  must  come  directly  from  this  source. 

But  the  soul,  or  psychical  organism:  Is  this  a,  substance? 
Is  it  an  organized  structure  ?   If  so  (and  I  assume  that  it  is), 


84  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

whence  the  materials  of  "vvhich  it  is  composed?  This  is 
formed  of  diiFerent  and  more  subtle  and  refined  materials 
than  the  physical,  which,  when  combined  in  a  certain  form 
and  manner,  make  a  human  soul,  mind,  or  spirit  (no  matter 
as  to  its  name),  which  is  capable  of  all  the  phenomena  of 
thought,  feeling,  will,  reason,  and  all  others  which  are  mani- 
festations of  what  we  call  soul.  Whether  this  be  a  compound 
of  organized  substances,  or  whether  it  be  made  up  of  one 
element,  or  what  may  be  its  shape,  or  what  the  changes  to 
which  it  is  liable ;  these  are  questions  not  important  to  the 
object  at  which  I  aim  ;  though  my  conviction  is  that  the  por- 
tion of  the  living  human  organism  which  thinks,  reasons, 
feels,  loves,  contrives,  aspires ;  which  sees,  hears,  tastes  and 
smells  ;  and  which  vitalizes  every  particle  and  portion  of  the 
body,  and  is  the  motive  power  of  the  whole  system,  —  is  an 
organized  substance,  or  rather  a  compound  of  organized  sub- 
stances, having  the  exact  form  and  appearance  of  a  man  or 
woman,  and  that  this  psychical  organism  is  the  exact  counter- 
part of  the  physical ;  or  rather,  the  latter  is  the  exact  counter- 
part of  the  former ;  the  physical  exactly  answering  to  the 
psychical  in  every  particular,  being  made  by  it,  and  for  it ; 
and  in  every  particle  of  its  structure  being  permeated  and 
vitalized  by  it,  and  its  existence  having  no  significance,  except 
as  a  medium  formed  by  the  spirit,  or  psychical  organism, 
and  adapted  to  the  manifestation  of  all  its  peculiar  qualities. 
Assuming,  then,  that  the  soul,  or  the  thinking,  feeling, 
willing,  vitalizing  and  motive  power  of  the  human  organism 
is  an  organized  substance,  or,  a  compound  of  organized  sub- 
stances ;  that  it  is  something  and  not  nothing ;  the  same 
question  arises  in  regard  to  it  that  is  asked  in  reference  to 
the  body  —  Whence  the  elements  or  materials  of  which  it  is 
formed?  They  must  come  from  some  source,  and  that 
source  must  be  within  reach  of  and  accessible  to  the  plastic 


THE   ORGANISM  —  WHENCE   ITS   MATERIALS?  85 

or  formmg  power,  whatever,  or  wherever  that  power  may  be. 
If  there  be  any  soul  or  living  power  in  the  germ  capable  of 
conscious  thought,  affection,  memory,  will  and  reason,  it  lies 
beyond  our  ken.  Whatever  other  power  may  be  there,  this 
is  not,  so  far  as  we  can  discover,  any  more  than  there  is  a 
body,  with  brains,  eyes,  heart  and  lungs  and  stomach. 
There  is  a  something  in  the  germ,  which,  under  the  fostering 
care,  and  aided  by  the  vitalizing,  constructive  power  of  the 
maternal  organism,  is  competent  to  gather  up  materials  from 
its  surroundings,  and  so  distribute,  assimilate,  combine  and 
unite  them,  as  to  present  them,  in  due  time,  in  the  form  of  a 
living,  self-moving  human  being.  This  power  to  gather  up 
those  materials  and  form  them  into  a  living  child,  is  in  the 
germ  ;  but  it  could  never  perform  this  work  only  within  the 
living  organism  of  woman ;  and  in  direct  contact  with  her 
blood,  and  aided  by  the  plastic  power  of  her  nature.  If 
there  is,  or  ever  was,  any  other  place  or  organism,  in  which 
a  human  germ  could  be  developed  into  a  human  being, 
except  the  organism  of  woman,  thus  far,  human  research  has 
failed  to  discover  it. 

The  psychical  organism  must  derive  its  materials  from  the 
same  source  from  whicli  the  body  is  derived.  Woman's 
blood  is  the  immediate  source  from  which  come  all  human 
souls  as  well  as  bodies.  This  psychical  organism,  or  soul, 
constitutes  the  vitalizing,  thinking,  loving  and  motive  power 
of  the  flesh  and  blood  organism,  its  life-principle.  The 
physical  body  has  material  eyes  and  ears,  but  it  is  the 
psychical  organism  that  sees  and  hears ;  the  physical  has 
nerves,  but  it  is  the  psychical  that  feels,  smells  and  tastes ; 
the  body  has  legs,  but  it  is  the  soul  that  walks ;  and  the 
body  has  a  tongue,  but  it  is  the  soul  that  talks.  So  of  all 
the  organs  and  functions  of  the  physical  organism ;  they 
would  all  be  as  wood  and  stone  cut  and  carved  into  the  like- 


86  THE   EHIPtRE    OF   THE   MOTHER. 

ness  of  a  man  or  woman,  utterly  destitute  of  life  and  motion, 
and  of  thought  and  feeling,  of  will  and  memory,  but  for  the 
thinking,  feeling,  living,  willing  psychical  organism  within. 
This  vitalizes  every  organ  and  function  of  the  physical 
organism,  and  gives  use  and  significance  to  them  all. 

The  mother  takes  charge  of  the  germ  of  a  new  life.  No 
organized  structure  is  there ;  only  a  simple  cell,  with  a 
something  in  it,  capable,  under  the  action  of  a  power  within 
itself  and  in  the  mother,  of  being  developed  into  a  perfect 
human  being.  "Within  nine  months  that  germ  appears  a 
living,  human  body  and  soul ;  the  growth  of  the  latter 
having  kept  exact  pace  with  that  of  the  former.  When  the 
eye  and  ear  are  perfected,  the  soul  sees  and  hears  ;  when  the 
brain  and  nerves  are  perfected,  the  soul  thinks  and  feels ; 
when  the  legs  and  tongue  are  perfected,  the  soul  walks  and 
talks ;  the  growth  of  the  psychical  corresponding  with  that 
of  the  physical,  and  the  manifestations  of  the  former  are 
essentially  controlled  by  the  conditions  of  the  latter.  The 
psychical  organism,  in  all  its  parts  and  powers,  must,  like 
the  physical,  be  made  complete  before  birth,  or  it  never  can 
be  perfected  in  this  state.  If  the  child  is  born  without  a 
physical  eye,  ear,  tongue,  arm  or  leg,  these  can  never  be 
added  afterwards.  So  if  any  organ,  faculty,  or  power  of  the 
psychical  organism  be  incomplete  at  birth,  it  must  remain  so 
till  the  dissolution  •  of  the  body.  Whether  the  inherited, 
organic  diseases  and  deformities  of  the  psychical  organism 
can  be  and  will  be  cured  after  that  event,  is  a  fearful  question 
to  those  who  are  to  be  the  mothers  and  fathers  of  this  world's 
future,  if  the  positions  laid  down  in  this  work  be  true. 
Human  souls  are  cursed,  before  birth,  with  painful  diseases 
and  horrible  deformities.  Who  does  it?  The  parents; 
mainly  the  mother,  aided  by  the  father,  acting  through  her. 
Will  those  diseases  of  the  soul  ever  be  cured,  if  not  before, 


THE   ORGANISM  —  WHENCE   ITS   MATERIALS?  87 

then  after  the  dissolution  of  the  body  ?  Mothers  !  Fathers  ! 
Must  your  outraged,  diseased,  suiFering  children  stand  for- 
ever before  you,  as  swift  witnesses  against  your  wilful  igno- 
rance, your  cruel  indifference,  your  ungoverned  passion  and 
your  inhuman  selfishness?  "Will  you  not  all  combine  your 
efforts  to  purify  the  fountain  from  which  must  issue  all  the 
streams  of  human  life  that  are  to  flow  on  and  on  forever? 
Will  you  not,  calmly  and  earnestly,  consider  the  relation  of 
woman's  organism  to  the  destiny  of  the  race,  and  then  do 
whatever  may  and  can  be  done,  to  purify  and  perfect  this 
source,  from  which  have  come  in  the  past,  and  must  come  in 
the  future,  all  the  psychical,  as  well  as  physical  human 
organisms,  all  the  souls  as  Avell  as  bodies,  that  are  to  fill  and 
crowd  this  portion  of  God's  great  kingdom,  both  in  and  out 
of  the  body  ? 

For  there  is  the  same  reason  to  conclude  that  the  elements 
of  which  souls  are  made,  come  from  the  blood  of  woman,  as 
well  as  those  of  which  bodies  are  made.  We  have  no  appa- 
ratus to  analyze  the  psychical,  as  we  have  to  analyze  the 
physical  organism.  We  cannot  subject  the  elements  of  which 
souls  are  made  to  the  scrutiny  of  the  bodily  senses.  Yet,  as 
both  organisms  are  developed  by  the  action  of  the  plastic  or 
forming  power  in  the  maternal  organism,  and  amid  the  same 
surroundings,  there  is  the  same  reason  to  conclude  that  both 
are  derived  from  the  same  source ;  that,  as  the  physical  eye 
and  ear  are  derived  from  the  maternal  blood,  so  the  psychical 
power  to  see  and  hear,  comes  from  the  same ;  and  as  the 
physical  brain,  nerves  and  heart,  are  derived  from  woman's 
blood,  the  psychical  power  to  think  and  feel,  to  reason  and 
to  love,  to  will  and  to  do,  come  from  the  same  source. 

Through  the  action  of  the  mother's  blood,  life  and  sensa- 
tion are  communicated  to  every  part,  not  only  of  her  own 
system,  but  also  to  that  of  her  forming  child.     As,  through 


88  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

the  action  of  her  blood  her  own  organism  is  prepared  to 
see,  hear,  taste,  smell,  think  and  feel,  and  to  live  and  move  ; 
so  through  the  action  of  the  same  agent,  her  child's  organi- 
zation is  perfected,  and  rendered  capable  of  seeing,  hearing, 
thinking,  feeling,  living  and  acting.  Not  only  are  the  physi- 
cal instruments  of  thought  and  feeling,  of  seeing  and  hear- 
ing, prepared  by  the  action  of  her  blood,  but  the  organization 
of  the  agent,  or  soul,  that  is  to  use  those  instrumentalities,  is 
perfected  by  the  same  process. 

The  conclusion  is,  that  there  are  the  same  reasons  for 
believing  that  there  must  exist  in  woman's  blood,  elements  of 
which  souls  as  well  as  bodies  are  made ;  and  that  there  is 
power  in  the  germ  to  gather  up  and  put  together  those 
materials  into  living  human  organisms,  capable  of  all  the 
phenomenal  manifestations  usually  seen  and  expected  in  a 
human  being.  The  conclusion  seems  rational  and  philo- 
sophical, that  human  beings,  with  all  their  essential  and 
peculiar  attributes  and  characteristics,  derive  their  organic 
existence  directly  from  the  blood  of  woman.  Our  physical, 
intellectual,  affectional,  and  passional  predeterminations,  come 
to  us,  mainly,  through  the  maternal  organism  ;  and,  as  are  its 
conditions,  so  will  be  our  organization,  and,  consequently, 
our  post-natal  destiny. 

The  question  may  arise.  Has  woman  the  power  to  say  of 
what  materials  her  blood  shall  be  composed  ?  Who  can  doubt 
it?  It  is  to  ask.  Has  woman  any  power  over  the  quality  and 
quantity  of  her  food  ?  That  her  blood  is  formed  from  what- 
ever she  takes  into  her  system  as  nourishment,  or  as  a  grati- 
fication of  her  appetite  ;  that  it  is  characterized,  and  made 
pure  or  impure,  by  the  quality  of  what  she  takes ;  that  it 
may  be  rendered  more  or  less  diseased  by  the  quantity,  as 
well  as  by  the  quality  of  her  food ;  that  her  blood  may  be 
made  impure,  and  rendered  unfit  to  supply  healthful  nutrition 


THE   ORGANISM  —  WHENCE  ITS  MATERIALS?  89 

to  her  embryo  child,  by  an  excess  in  quantity  of  even  the 
most  healthful  food ;  that  she  has  power  to  select  from  the 
articles  spread  by  God,  so  bountifully  on  his  great  table, 
selecting  that  which,  in  her  view,  is  best  adapted  to  form 
pure,  and  rejecting  that  which  is  most  likely  to  form  impure 
blood  ;  that  the  quality  of  the  air  she  breathes,  and  the  water 
and  liquids  she  drinks,  and  the  kind  and  amount  of  the 
labor  she  performs,  will  materially  affect  the  conditions  of 
her  blood ;  that  she  can,  to  a  great  extent,  control  the  air 
she  breathes,  the  liquid)  she  drinks,  and  the  labor  she  per- 
forms ;  that  these,  and  many  other  things  pertaining  to  her 
physical  life,  that  essentially  affect  the  character  of  her  blood, 
are,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  under  her  control,  none  can 
doubt.  If,  then,  she  has  power  over  her  food,  and  over 
whatever  constitutes  her  nutrition,  she  has  power  to  say  of 
what  her  blood  shall  be  made. 

Who  shall  instruct  woman  in  two  things?  (1.)  "What 
materials  are  best  adapted  to  form  the  most  healthful,  vigor- 
ous and  perfect  organization  for  her  child?  (2.)  What  kinds 
of  nourishment  are  best  adapted  to  supply  her  blood  with 
those  materials  ?  The  true  woman  would  become  a  mother. 
She  would  give  to  her  child  a  healthful,  vigorous  and  happy 
organism,  body  and  soul.  She  knows  its  organic  existence 
must  be  derived  from  her  blood.  Her  natural  and  most 
anxious  inquiry  will  be,  "  How  can  I  place  my  blood  in  the 
best  possible  condition  to  furnish  my  child  Avith  materials 
for  the  best  possible  organization?  WTio  will  instruct  me 
how  to  make  the  fountain  pure  and  perfect,  from  which  the 
organic  existence,  the  character  and  destiny  of  my  child  are 
to  flow?"  Who,  by  chemical  analysis,  will  tell  that  anxious 
woman  what  nutriment  is  adapted  to  furnish  the  best  mate- 
rials for  the  formation  of  the  most  healthful  body?  Can  any 
4* 


90  THE  EMPIRE   OP  THE  MOTHER. 

one  inform  her  what  nutriment  contains  most  of  those  ele- 
ments that  are  required  to  form  the  most  perfect  soul  ? 

But  these  are  questions  for  the  future  of  the  race  in  that 
good  time  coming;  when,  in  religion,  in  morals,  in  anthro- 
pology, and  in  all  efforts  to  elevate  and  perfect  the  nature  we 
bear.  Fiction  shall  give  place  to  Fact.  In  that  future,  I  am 
certain  the  question  will  be  asked  and  answered  —  How  can 
the  most  healthful,  beautiful  and  happy  organic  existence  be 
secured  to  each  child  as  a  birthright  inheritance  ?  Then  the 
church,  the  state,  the  pulpit,  the  press  and  platform,  and  all 
who  would  elevate  and  save  the  race,  and  secure  to  all  a 
noble  character  and  a  happy  destiny,  will  turn  their  attention 
to  the  Health  of  Woman.  All  will  say  —  "  Let  us  purify 
and  perfect  her  blood,  the  fountain  of  all  organic  life  and  of 
character  and  destiny  to  man ;  let  us  invigorate,  beautify, 
ennoble  and  perfect  that  organism  in  which  all  of  human  kind 
receive  their  organic  existence  and  direction,  their  tendencies 
to  physical  disease  or  health  and  mental  and  moral  aptitudes ; 
let  us  cleanse  and  purify  the  fountain  of  organic  life,  and  then 
the  streams  that  flow  from  it  will  be  pure." 

But,  what  of  the  present  condition  of  that  fountain  of  life, 
character  and  destiny  to  man  ?  Who  can  think  of  it  without 
shrinking  with  horror  from  the  ghastly  diseases  and  crimes 
that  are  to  flow  from  it,  and  the  wretchedness  that  must  fol- 
low in  their  train  ?  Where  is  the  healthy  woman  ?  Where 
the  mother  that  rejoices  in  the  perfectly  healthful  organism  of 
her  child  ?  The  Blood  of  Woman  !  It  is  filled  with  many 
foul  diseases.  Of  necessity,  must  not  those  human  organisms 
that  derive  their  existence  from  such  a  source,  be  filled  with 
disease  from  the  crown  of  the  head  to  the  sole  of  the  foot? 
What  use  in  trying  to  heal  these  wounds  and  diseases,  while 
the  fountain  is  left  untouched?  The  fountain  is  full  of 
animal  and  vegetable  putrefaction,  all  dark  and  turbid  with 


THE   ORGANISM  —  WHENCE   ITS   ]yL4.TEIlIALS  ?  91 

filth  and  corruption.  Would  we  purify  the  stream?  Go 
then  and  remove  the  decaying  animal  and  vegetable  sub- 
stances from  the  fountain  ;  cleanse  it  of  all  that  corrupts  and 
pollutes  its  waters,  and  makes  them  poisonous  and  loath- 
some ;  and  then  clear  and  beautiful  streams  will  issue  from 
it  to  gladden  and  bless  all  who  approach  and  partake  of  them. 
So  let  the  world  deal  with  the  Blood  of  "Woman,  —  purify, 
beautify  and  ennoble  that,  and  then  nought  but  cleanliness, 
purity,  beauty  and  nobleness  can  flow  from  it. 


92  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


INHERITED  IVIATERNAL  COITDITIONS. 

Two  facts  have  been  stated  and  commented  on,  going  to 
show  the  power  of  the  mother  over  the  organization  of  the 
chikl,  i.  e. :  (1.)  The  organic  existence  of  the  child  is  begun 
and  completed  within  the  organism  of  the  mother.  (2.)  The 
elements  of  which  that  organism  is  composed  must  come 
from  the  mother's  blood.  These  two  facts  cannot  be  dis- 
puted.    A  third  fact  is  no  less  certain,  i.  e. : 

Fact  Third.  —  The  Materials  of  which  the  Child  is 

COMPOSED,     MUST      COME      PROM      THE      MaTERNAL     BlOOD, 
STAMPED   WITH    ITS    Coi^DITIONS. 

The  conditions  of  woman  may  be  considered  in  two  aspects. 
(1.)  Physical  conditions.  (2.)  Psychical  conditions, — or 
conditions  of  the  hody  and  conditions  of  the  soid.  That  the 
conditions  of  her  entire  physical  organism  are  in  accordance 
with  and  indicated  by  the  conditions  of  her  blood,  will  not  be 
doubted.  As  is  the  state  of  her  blood,  so  will  be  that  of  her 
brain,  her  heart,  her  lungs,  stomach,  liver,  and  nervous  sys- 
tem ;  of  her  eyes,  ears,  skin,  and  of  every  organ  and  function 
of  her  body.  Inasmuch  as  the  entire  physical  structure  is 
nourished  and  sustained  through  the  blood,  and  every  waste 
in  the  tissues  and  fibres  is  supplied  from  the  same  source ; 
and  that  which  supplies  her  own  system  with  nourishment, 
must  supply  the  materials  to  form  the  organism  of  her  embryo 


INHERITED   MATERNAL   CONDITIONS.  93 

child ;  consequently  the  impurities  and  diseases  that  are  in 
her  blood  must  enter,  not  only  into  her  own,  but  also  into  its 
body.  Her  blood  must  furnish  all  the  materials  necessary  to 
form  the  brain,  the  lungs,  the  heart,  eyes  and  ears  of  her 
child  ;  and  if  those  materials  are  defective  and  diseased, 
before  they  are  extracted  from  her  blood,  they  must  be  so 
after  they  are  constructed  into  these  different  organs,  and  of 
course  the  organs  themselves  will  be  defective,  and  unfitted 
healthfully  to  perform  the  parts  assigned  to  them  in  the 
system. 

A71  Autlienticated  Fact.  The  following  well-attested  fact 
is,  in  several  respects,  very  illustrative,  especially  of  the 
power  of  the  maternal  blood  over  the  physical  conditions  of 

the  child,  before  and  after  birth.     A  Mrs.  gave  birth 

to  twins.  The  physical  organisms  of  the  children  were  per- 
fect and  healthful  in  every  part.  Such  were  the  conditions 
of  the  mother  that  it  was  thought  advisable  to  feed  rather 
than  nurse  them  at  the  breast.  Cows'  milk  was  the  only 
nourishment  given  them.  Though  plump,  and  a^Tparently 
healthy,  their  food  afforded  no  nourishment.  They  would 
eat  voraciously,  but  they  seemed  to  have  no  power  to  convert 
their  food  into  blood,  and  thence  into  bone,  brain,  and  various 
organs  of  the  body.  From  the  first  they  began  to  grow  poor, 
thin,  craving  and  devouring  the  food,  but  deriving  no  means 
of  growth  and  strength  from  it.  They  became  very  ema- 
ciated. At  length  the  attending  physician,  though  he  could 
discover  no  disease  in  them,  gave  them  up,  declaring  that 
they  must  die.  A  neighbor  called  in  to  see  them,  who  had 
given  much  thought  to  the  subject  of  animal  chemistry  and 
the  phenomena  of  physical  life.  He  saw  that  the  children 
were  starving  to  death,  and  that  they  had  no  power  to  con- 
vert their  food  into  blood,  and  appropriate  it  to  the  purpose 
of  nutrition.     On  questioning  the  mother  as  to  her  habits  of 


94  THE  EMPIEE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

life  in  regard  to  diet,  he  found  that  she  had,  from  early 
girlhood,  lived  mainly  on  animal  food.  He  inferred  that  the 
trouble  was  in  the  food,  and  not  in  the  children.  He  said 
"  the  mother's  blood  was  made  of  animal  food,  and,  conse- 
quently, the  organisms  of  the  children  were  composed  of 
materials  derived  from  animal  food ;  and  cows'  milk,  being 
the  product  of  vegetable  food,  was  not  suitable  nourishment 
for  children  whose  physical  existence  is  derived  from  animal 
food."  Accordingly  he  sent  to  the  market,  got  a  piece  of 
fresh,  tender,  lean  beef,  had  some  beef-tea  made,  and,  in  a 
weak  state  at  first,  gave  some  to  the  famished  little  ones. 
The  very  smell  of  it  seemed  to  invigorate  them.  They  lived 
on  it  for  weeks,  having  it  made  stronger  and  stronger,  till 
they  were  allowed  to  suck  the  fibre,  and  finally  to  swallow 
it.  They  at  once  began  to  grow  and  strengthen,  and  in  a 
few  months  were  hale  and  hearty.  The  physical  conditions 
of  the  mother  were  organized  into  her  children,  and  they 
needed  food  adapted  to  those  conditions.  Had  they  nursed 
at  the  maternal  breast,  all  had  been  well ;  but,  being  fed  on 
a  substance  derived  solely  from  vegetable  food,  there  was  not 
power  in  them  to  convert  it  into  nutrition  for  their  peculiar 
organisms. 

Another  Attested  Fad^  going   to  show  the  same.     A  Mrs. 

gave  birth  to  a  child,  which  she  could  not  nurse,  and 

had  to  feed.  The  mother  had  taken  meat  and  potatoes,  and 
other  hearty  vegetables,  as  a  constant  diet  for  years.  She 
fed  her  child  on  tapioca  and  rice,  prepared  with  cows'  milk. 
It  grew  but  little  in  size  and  weight,  and  seemed  sickly, 
weak,  and  unable  to  sustain  life.  After  several  months,  the 
mother  was  persuaded  to  change  its  diet,  and  feed  it  on 
meat,  potato,  and  other  hearty  vegetables.  The  child,  at 
once,  began  to  show  the  effects  of  the  change,  and  to  become 
strong  and  vigorous.     Its  nutrition  was  similar  to  that  on 


INHERITED    BIATERNAL   CONDITIONS.  95 

which  its  development  depended  before  birth.  It  is  a  wise 
arrangement,  doubtless,  and  founded  in  true  philosophy,  that 
the  infant,  sometime  after  it  is  born,  is  to  derive  its  nourish- 
ment from  the  maternal  organism  ;  thus,  in  its  tenderest  and 
most  susceptible  period  of  post-natal  existence,  deriving  its 
means  of  growth  from  the  same  source  from  which  it  derived 
its  nutrition  for  pre-natal  development.  Of  what  is  the 
maternal  blood  composed  ?  Learn  this,  and  you  know  what 
the  child,  whose  organic  existence  is  derived  from  it,  needs 
to  supply  its  demands.  After  its  birth,  the  child's  body  will 
need  to  be  nourished  by  substances  similar  to  those  on  which 
it  was  nourished  before  its  birth. 

If  scrofula,  cancer,  consumption,  or  any  disease  exists  in 
the  maternal  blood,  those  diseases,  or  tendencies  to  them, 
must,  of  necessity,  be  organized  into  the  body  of  her  child. 
Within  my  knowledge,  the  mother  of  four  children  died  of 
consumption.  Three  of  her  children,  daughters,  died  of  the 
same  disease,  at  about  the  age  of  twenty.  The  fourth,  a  son, 
yet  lives,  but  shows,  unmistakably,  that  he  is  soon  to  pass 
within  the  veil,  by  the  same  disease.  Who  killed  these  chil- 
dren? It  is  a  mere  convenient  fiction,  to  screen  parents  from 
responsibility,  to  charge  their  disease  and  corporeal  death, 
upon  God.  As  well  make  God  responsible  for  the  atrocities 
of  slaveholders,  who  separate  husbands  and  wives,  parents 
and  children,  brothers  and  sisters,  who  whip  and  scar  the 
backs  of  women,  and  who,  as  inhuman  slave-traders,  chattel- 
ize  and  sell  men,  women  and  children.  The  God  of  Nature 
is  no  more  responsible  for  the  inherited  diseases  of  those 
children,  than  for  the  blow  of  the  midnight  assassin,  or  the 
slaughter  of  men  on  Bunker  Hill,  and  at  Sebastopol.  Con- 
sumption lurked  in  the  maternal  blood,  and  it  was  organized 
into  those  children  before  they  were  born. 


96  THE   ESIPIKE   OF   THE   MOTHER. 

The  following  fact  is  within  my  knowledge.  A  mother  of 
a  large  family,  whose  organism  was  derived  from  maternal 
ancestors  in  whose  blood  consumption  lay  concealed,  and 
which  culminated  in  death,  had  her  hopes  blasted,  and  her 
life  deeply  saddened,  by  the  death  of  five  of  her  children  by 
the  fell  destroyer.  She  had  about  the  healthiest,  most  ener- 
getic, and  all-enduring  womanly  organism  I  ever  heard  of. 
She  lived  over  three  score  years  and  ten,  and  died  without 
any  particular  disease  or  pain.  Tendency  to  consumption 
may  have  been  in  her  blood,  but  no  outward  symptoms  bf  it 
ever  appeared.  How  came  her  children  to  have  it?  They 
may  have  inherited  a  tendency  to  it  from  her,  but  the  true 
cause  was,  the  mother  was  overworked  during  their  pre- 
natal life,  and  the  vital  forces  and  energies  that  should  have 
been  free  to  give  vigor  to  their  organizations,  were  directed 
into  other  channels.  The  conditions  of  her  blood  were  poor 
and  feeble,  and  this  feebleness  and  impotency  were  organized 
into  them,  and  they  were  victimized  to  her  misdirected  ener- 
gies. Her  blood,  exhausted  by  her  incessant,  wearing  toil, 
became  inactive,  and  wholly  unfit  to  impart  vitality  and 
energy  to  her  children.  During  that  period,  so  replete  with 
destiny  to  the  child,  the  maternal  energies  should  be  left 
entirely  free  to  impart  vitality,  power  and  activity,  to  its 
organism. 

The  physical  life  and  condition  of  every  child,  and  of  every 
man  and  woman,  is  proof  that  the  materials  which  go  to  form 
the  pre-natal  organic  existence  of  children,  must  be  stamped 
with  the  conditions  of  that  maternal  blood  from  which  they 
are  derived.  Woman  !  think  of  this  as  you  weaken,  taint, 
and  pollute  your  blood  withe  foul  narcotics,  with  nauseous 
condiments  and  compounds,  with  putrid  air,  with  diseased 
food,  with  exhausting  labors,  and  with  wearying  and  unnatu- 
ral, though  exciting  amusements  and  indulgences.     Hearken ! 


INHERITED    MATERNAL    CONDITIONS.  97 

the  anguish  and  agonies,  the  wails  and  woes,  of  frightful  dis- 
eases and  premature  deaths  to  unborn  millions  fill  the  air 
around  you.  If  you  would  open  your  eyes,  and  unstop  your 
ears,  you  might  see  and  hear  them.  Women  of  the  Present 
and  to  be  the  Mothers  of  the  Puture  !  listen  to  the  agonizing 
prayers  that  come  up  to  you  from  the  generations  whose 
organisms  are  to  be  derived  from  your  blood,  and  for  theii 
sake,  purify  and  keep  pure  this  fountain  of  life  to  coming 
ages.  Let  no  indiscreet,  extravagant  and  unnatural  action  of 
yours  pollute  or  enfeeble  your  blood,  and  through  that  mar 
the  beauty  or  harm  the  destiny  of  their  physical  natures. 

But  what  of  the  Psychical  Conditions  of  the  3Iother  ?  That 
her  bodily  conditions  are  organized  into  her  child,  is  a  fact, 
known  and  read  of  all,  as  a  general  law  of  reproduction. 
How  is  it  with  her  mental,  social*  and  moral,  or  psychical 
conditions  ?  Do  these  become  the  inheritance  of  the  child  by 
a  similar  law  ?  Is  her  soul  as  well  as  her  body,  the  immor- 
tal as  well  as  the  mortal,  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  flesh,  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  as  well  as  the  cancers  and  scrofulas, 
the  psychical  as  well  as  the  physical  diseases  and  tendencies 
of  the  mother,  organized  into  her  children  ?  This  question  is 
more  complicated  and  comprehensive  than  the  other,  and  far 
less  easy  of  a  satisfactory  solution ;  yet,  facts  in  regard  to  it, 
are  as  abundant  and  intelligible ;  and,  if  we  allow  ourselves 
to  be  guided  by  these  facts,  and  trace  results  to  antecedents  in 
this  as  in  the  physical  phenomena  of  life,  our  conclusions 
will  be  the  same. 

The  conditions  of  the  blood  are,  to  a  great  extent,  con- 
trolled by  the  action  of  the  soul.  Certain  actions  of  the 
mind  produce  corresponding  actions  of  the  blood.  The  tem- 
perature and  motions  of  the  blood  are  heightened  and  accel- 
erated by  the  operations  of  the  soul.  The  character  of  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  characterize  the  action  of  the  blood. 


98  THE   EHIPmE   OF   THE   MOTHER. 

Woman's  heart  cannot  healthfully  perform  its  office,  in 
developing  a  life-germ  into  a  human  being,  except  as  it  is 
filled  and  thrilled  with  love  for  the  father  of  her  child.  God 
has  imposed  on  woman  this  injunction :  never  to  become  a 
mother  except  under  the  auspices  of  a  heart  entirely  per- 
meated and  controlled  by  a  concentrated,  exclusive,  conjugal 
love  for  the  father  of  her  child.  Only  such  a  love,  absorbing, 
filling  and  thrilling  her  entire  being,  can  place  her  blood  in  a 
condition  adapted  to  prepare  and  furnish  healthful  materials, 
rightly  and  happily  to  construct  an  organism,  truly  and  nobly 
to  act  its  part  on  the  theatre  of  eternity.  The  action  and 
movements  of  her  blood  must  obey  the  pulsations  of  her 
heart ;  the  pulsations  of  her  heart  must  obey  the  action  and 
emotions  of  her  soul.  If  her  whole  soul  be  vitalized,  thrilled, 
and  ennobled  by  a  concentrated,  exclusive,  conjugal  love,  that 
seeketh  not  its  own,  and  is  all-trusting,  all-hoping,  all-endur- 
ing, and  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God,  that  will  impart 
health  and  perfection  to  the  action  of  her  heart,  and  this  will 
purify,  vitalize  and  quicken  the  action  of  her  blood  ;  that  it 
may  furnish  healthful  materials  to  build  up  the  organic  struc- 
ture of  her  child.  Can  woman's  heart,  throbbing  with  any 
other  emotion,  impart  such  conditions  to  her  blood  as  are 
necessary  to  the  formation  of  a  healthful,  happy  child  ?  But 
what  must  be  the  conditions  of  that  woman's  blood,  whose 
heart  is  cold  and  dead  towards  the  father  of  her  child,  or  is 
excited  by  bitter  antagonism,  or  anger,  or  aversion,  and  with 
utter  disgust  towards  the  relation  in  which  her  child  origi- 
nated, or  murderous  opposition  to  its  existence.  God  pity  the 
poor  child  whose  organic  existence  is  begun  and  completed 
under  the  action  of  a  heart  thus  controlled  ! 


THE   MOTHER   AS   A   LAWGIVER.  99 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  MOTHER  AS  A  LAWGIVER. 

Is  it  true  that  human  destiny  daily  and  hourly  depends  on 
organic  conditions  and  constitutional  tendencies  ? 
•  And  is  it  true  that  our  organic  and  constitutional  tenden- 
cies of  body  and  soul  depend  on  maternal  conditions  ? 

Behold,  then,  the  empire  of  woman  as  a  mother !  Who 
shall  attempt  to  estimate  its  power,  its  extent  and  duration? 
Who  shall  attempt  to  calculate  its  bearing  on  the  destiny  of 
the  race,  in  the  body  and  out  of  it  ?  What  are  earthly  kings 
and  potentates !  They  wear  a  bawble  called  a  crown,  and 
wield  a  bawble  called  a  sceptre  !  They  rule  over  states  and 
kingdoms  of  limited  dimensions  for  a  day  or  an  hour.  They 
surround  themselves  with  such  splendor  as  money  can  buy, 
and  dazzle  and  bewilder  their  admirers,  and  exercise  a  brief, 
little  authority  over  them.  But  who  heeds  them?  Who 
cares  for  them?  They  die  corporeally,  and  are  forgotten,  and 
literally,  the  places  and  people  that  once  knew  them,  know 
them  no  more,  as  rulers.  How  soon  their  power  is  taken 
from  them ! 

How  terrible  the  end  of  one  of  the  most  gorgeous  kingdoms 
earth  ever  saw ! 

"  And  Babylon,  the  glory  of  kingdoms,  the  beauty  of  the 
Chaldees'  excellency,  shall  be  as  when  God  overthrew  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah.     It  shall  never  be  inhabited,  neither  shall  it 


100  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

be  dwelt  in  from  generation  to  generation.  Not  even  the  wild 
Arab  shall  pitch  his  tent  there ;  nor  shall  shepherds  make 
their  fold  there.  But  wild  beasts  of  the  desert  shall  couch 
down  there  ;  and  their  palaces  shall  be  full  of  doleful  crea- 
tures. Owls  shall  hoot  there  and  satyrs  dance  there.  And 
the  wild  beasts  of  the  islands  shall  howl  in  their  desolate 
houses,  and  dragons  scream  in  their  pleasant  dwellings. 
Lizards  and  snakes  shall  crawl  over  her  ruined  temples  ! 
Desolation  and  death  shall  hold  their  festival  amid  her  ruins." 
(Isa.  xiii.  19-22.)  To  the  kingdoms  of  the  dead  past,  this 
is  literally  applicable.  Neither  the  model  government  nor 
the  model  man  is  to  be  found  in  the  sepulchres  of  the  past. 
It  may  in  truth  be  said  of  all  governments  of  the  past,  based 
on  military  power,  Avith  all  their  array  of  kings  and  rulers, 
—  so  pass  the  power  and  glory  of  earthly  kingdoms  and 
earthly  potentates. 

But  the  mother's  empire  is  like  that  of  God's,  while  abso- 
lute in  power,  it  is  eternal  in  duration !  While  the  human 
soul  exists,  it  must  bear  in  its  nature  the  imprint  and  linea- 
ments of  the  mother. 

Contemplate  the  power  of  the  Mother  as  a  Law- 
giver !  We  are  under  fixed  laws  of  life  and  health  to  body 
and  soul.  This  is  knowledge ;  no  room  is  left  here  for  the 
action  of  faith.  In  this  we  walk  by  sight,  and  not  by  faith. 
Every  plant,  every  tree,  every  animal  beneath  man,  is  under 
fixed  and  just  laws  of  life  and  health.  All  that  has  animal 
or  vegetable  life,  are  brought  into  existence  and  carried 
onward  and  upward,  according  to  fixed  laws.  To  all  eter- 
nity we  shall  be  subject  to  them.  Our  destiny  is  fixed,  so 
far  as  immutable  laws  can  fix  it. 

Where  are  these  laws  to  be  found?  Where  is  the  origi- 
nal, infallible  copy?     Not  in  constitutions,  codes  and  creeds, 


THE  MOTHER   AS   A  LAWGIVER.  101 

the  work  of  men's  hands,  but  in  the  body  and  soul  of  each 
man  and  woman.  Each  human  being,  at  birth,  brings  with 
him  or  her,  as  a  birthright  inheritance,  a  code  of  laws, 
which,  if  he  obeys,  he  will  be  all  he  is  capable  of  being,  and 
just  what  he  was  designed  to  be,  and  no  power  in  the  universe 
can  make  him  evil  or  unhappy.  But  if  he  disobeys  them, 
no  power  can  make  him  good  and  happy  while  his  disobe- 
dience continues.  No  salvation  can  come  to  us  if  we  disobey 
these  laws ;  no  condemnation  can  come  to  us  if  we  obey 
them.  Health  and  heaven  must  result  from  obedience  ;  dis- 
ease and  hell  from  disobedience.  The  penalty  is  as  fixed 
and  certain  as  the  law. 

These  laws' are  organized  into  body  and  soul,  as  conditions 
of  life  and  health.  These  are  the  only  laws  that  are  ever 
given  to  man,  by  his  great  Lawgiver.  Each  is,  and  ever 
must  be,  a  law  unto  himself.  No  man  can  be  a  fixed  law 
unto  another.  No  man  can  ever  make  his  own  will  a  rule 
for  another.  The  eyes,  ears,  tongue,  brains,  lungs,  heart, 
stomach  and  blood  of  one  man,  can  never  be  governed  by 
any  external  will  or  power.  The  functions  of  each  human 
organism  must  be  governed  by  a  power  within  itself.  That 
another  eats  and  drinks,  can  never  assuage  my  hunger  and 
thirst.  That  another  is  truthful,  just,  and  good,  can  never 
supply  the  lack  of  these  qualities  in  me. 

Who  is  the  lawgiver  ?  Who  organizes  this  code  of  wise 
and  just  laws  into  our  existence?  Who  legislates  for  us? 
The  Mother,  in  whose  organism  our  organic  existence  is 
begun  and  completed,  and  whose  tender  love,  and  anxious, 
sleepless  solicitude,  preside  over  our  pre-natal  development. 
She  legislates  not  only  for  individuals,  for  a  town,  a  state, 
nation  or  kingdom,  but  also  for  the  race.  Her  legislation  is 
uniform,  and  every  human  being  must  be  subject  to  it.  Will 
the  mother's  power  ever  be  appreciated  by  men  and  women  ? 


102  THE  EMPIRE  OP  THE  MOTHER. 

Yes ;  when  Fiction  shall  yield  to  Fact,  and  Anthropology- 
become  the  only  Theology. 

The  laws  enacted  by  her  are  engi'aven,  not  on  parchment, 
nor  on  wood,  nor  stone,  nor  on  plates  of  copper,  silver  or 
gold,  but  on  the  more  enduring  substance  of  the  human  soul, 
and  also  in  the  body  through  which  that  soul  is  to  manifest 
itself.  The  mother,  as  a  legislator,  organizes  the  laws  of 
life  and  salvation  into  our  very  existence,  makes  them  essen- 
tial parts  of  ourselves ;  the  fixed,  unchanging  elements  of 
our  being.  She  inscribes  them  on  every  nerve,  fibre,  sinew, 
tissue,  vein,  artery,  and  bone  of  the  body,  literally  writing 
them  on  the  heart,  stomach,  lungs,  brain,  and  every  member 
of  the  physical  organism.  Also,  on  the  will,  reason,  con- 
science, and  every  power  or  faculty  of  the  psychical  organ- 
ism, or  soul.  She  legislates  for  the  interior  as  well  as  for 
the  exterior  life.  The  thoughts  and  aiFections,  and  all  the 
unseen,  unexpressed  operations  of  the  soul,  as  well  as  those 
that  are  expressed  and  visible,  are  awakened  and  controlled 
by  laws  of  her  enacting.  Every  element  and  faculty  of  our 
bodies  and  souls,  is  absolutely  and  forever  under  laws  of  her 
enacting  ;  and  to  each  law  is  annexed  the  eternal,  inexorable 
fiat  —  "  Obey  axd  live  ;  disobey  and  die." 

These  laws  of  the  mother  can  never  he  altered,  modified, 
or  repealed.  They  are,  iu  truth,  the  laws  of  God,  and 
changeless  and  enduring  in  all  their  operations  and  effects, 
as  the  source  from  which  they  come.  Laws,  enacted  by 
states  and  kingdoms,  must  be  changed  or  repealed  ;  but  the 
laws  enacted  by  the  mother  are  made  essential  elements  of 
our  existence,  and  can  never  be  repealed  till  the  entire, 
human  organism,  body  and  soul,  is  annihilated. 

The  governments  of  this  world  are  arhitrary  and  capricious. 
They  cannot  be  otherwise.  They  are  one  thing  to-day, 
another  to-morrow  ;  unstable  as  the  wind  or  the  tide  ;  nothing 


THE   MOTHER  AS   A  LAWGIVER.  103 

is  fixed  or  permanent  about  them.  Indeed,  the  basis  of  all 
laws,  as  enacted  by  legislators,  states  and  kingdoms,  is  what 
ignorant,  short-sighted  man  determines  to  be  present  expe- 
diency. According  to  their  decisions,  what  is  truth  to-day, 
may  be  enacted  into  a  lie  to-morrow  ;  what  is  theft,  robbery 
and  murder,  to-day,  may  be  converted  into  righteousness  to- 
morrow. The  licentiousness  of  to-day,  may  become  the 
perfection  of  moral  purity  to-morrow.  "What  is  truth,  justice, 
mercy,  benevolence,  kindness,  to-day,  may  be  converted  into 
falsehood,  injustice,  cruelty,  and  unkindness,  to-morrow. 
Thus  are  all  the  enactments  of  human  governments  capri- 
cious and  changeable.  They  claim  the  power  to  annihilate 
all  distinction  between  good  and  evil.  But  the  empire  of 
the  mother  is  fixed  as  the  throne  of  God.  Her  enactments 
are  for  all  time  and  eternity.  What  is  law  at  one  time  or 
place,  is  law  in  all  times  and  places.  In  the  code  which  she 
gives  to  her  child,  as  a  birthright  legacy,  what  is  just  in  one 
time  and  place,  is  just  in  all  times  and  places.  Her  decrees 
are  fixed  and  unchangeable.  Her  legislation  is  for  eternity. 
What  is  just  and  right  in  the  body,  will  be  just  and  right  out 
of  it.  The  laws  of  the  soul,  organized  into  it  by  the  mother, 
will  never  be  repealed  till  the  soul  is  annihilated. 

There  is  no  partiality  in  her  enactmeyits.  Her  laws  bear 
on  all  alike.  They  ignore  all  disuoction  of  rich  and  poor, 
learned  and  unlearned,  reputable  and  disreputable,  high  and 
low  ;  and  they  act  on  all  impartially.  Before  her  laws,  all 
are  on  a  dead  level.  As  a  subject  of  law  and  penalty,  she 
recognizes  the  absolute  equality  of  man,  without  regard  to 
color,  country,  or  condition.  The  laws  of  civil  government 
are  partial.  They  often  act  on  different  persons  differently, 
according  as  they  are  rich  or  poor,  high  or  low,  reputable  or 
disreputable.  Their  penalties  are  often  visited  upon  criminals 
according  to  their  color,  their  wealth,  their  station,  their  social 


104  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

standing.  But  the  laws  enacted  and  engraven  upon  our 
bodies  and  souls  by  the  mother  are  just  and  impartial,  and 
their  penalties  visited  on  all  alike,  ignoring  all  adventitious 
distinctions.  Her  legislation  is  for  humanity ;  and  all  that 
are  human  by  virtue  of  their  existence  as  human  beings, 
must  be  subject  to  and  alike  affected  by  it.  "  Obey  and  live  — 
disobey  and  die,"  is  the  only  alternative  for  all.  I  repeat,  all 
are  equal,  before  her  enactments.  She,  as  a  lawgiver,  knows 
no  distinction  between  rich  and  poor,  enslaved  and  enslaver, 
black  and  white,  titled  and  untitled,  popular  and  unpopular. 

The  Empire  of  the  3Iother  is  Internal,  that  of  Civil  Govern' 
ments  is  External.  The  kingdom  of  the  mother  is  within  us  — 
all  other  kingdoms  are  without.  The  affections,  the  thoughts, 
the  likes  and  dislikes,  the  desires,  the  passions,  the  disposi- 
tions, the  proclivities,  the  entire  health  and  life  of  the  soul  is 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  mother,  as  well  as  the  health  and 
life  of  the  body.  Civil  governments  can  take  cognizance  only 
of  the  outward,  overt  acts  of  the  body.  The  interior  life  of 
every  human  being  is  subject  to  her  dominion.  Victoria's 
empire  as  a  mother  will  grow  and  increase  in  extent  and 
duration,  when  her  empire  as  a  queen  will  be  forgotten. 

Is  it  said,  the  mother  is  not  the  real  lawgiver,  but  only  the 
agent  or  medium  through  which  the  laws  are  given  ?  Granted 
—  but  has  not  the  mother  power  to  alter  or  modify  the  laws 
of  God,  as  she  inscribes  them  on  the  child  ?  She  may,  with 
those  divine  laws,  organize  into  her  child,  certain  antagonistic, 
temporary  regulations,  which  may  greatly  impede  the  results 
which  the  divine  laws  are  adapted  to  work  out.  So  that  in 
her  child  there  may  be  two  opposing  forces  or  sets  of  laws  ; 
two  conflicting  powers  or  kingdoms.  So  that  each  may  say, 
"  I  find  in  my  members  a  law,  warring  against  the  law  of  my 
mind,  leading  me  into  captivity  to  sin.  When  I  would  do 
good,  evil  is  present." 


THE    MOTHER   AS   A   LAWGIVER.  105 

God  legislates  for  men  through  the  mother,  never  through 
congress  or  parliament ;  nor  through  the  church  or  state. 
The  laws,  given  through  the  mother,  are  more  fitted  to  work 
out  our  glory,  than  laws  given  through  priests,  politicians, 
ecclesiastical  councils,  or  political  caucuses.  Woman,  as  a 
mother,  is  the  law-making  power  of  the  great  human  king- 
dom ;  and  the  sole  legitimate  business  of  all  agents,  employed 
to  keep  the  peace,  is  to  see  to  it  that  her  laws  are  obeyed ; 
for  her  laws  are  the  laws  of  God.  The  sovereignty  of  the 
race  is  vested  in  her.  God  has  put  into  her  hand  the  sceptre 
of  universal  dominion.  Over  every  tribe,  state,  nation,  and 
kingdom,  her  laws  extend ;  and  all  peoples,  savage  and  civ- 
ilized, barbarian  and  Christian,  are  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  mother.  Wherever  there  are  souls  to  feel  and  think,  to 
suffer  and  enjoy,  whether  in  or  out  of  the  body,  there  her 
power  is  felt ;  and  her  kingdom  is  an  everlasting  kingdom, 
and  her  dominion  limited  only  by  human  life. 

Thus  the  mother  organizes  into  the  body  and  soul  of  her 
child  fixed  laws  or  conditions  of  health  and  life.  Sad  it  is, 
that,  at  the  same  time  she  should,  owing  to  her  ignorance  and 
diseased  conditions,  organize  into  her  child  conditions  of  dis- 
ease and  death ;  conditions  which  impel  the  child  to  disobe- 
dience to  these  just  and  wholesome  laws,  and  to  a  course  of 
non-compliance  with  those  fixed  conditions  of  health  and  life. 
Love,  justice,  truth,  forgiveness,  forbearance,  gentleness,  are 
made  essential  elements  of  existence  in  the  soul  of  her  child ; 
at  the  same  time,  she  organizes  into  it  a  propensity  to  hatred, 
injustice,  falsehood,  revenge,  and  cruelty.  Good  for  evil,  is 
the  noblest,  most  essential  condition  of  happiness  to  her 
child's  psychical  existence  ;  yet,  with  this  most  essential  and 
absolute  law  of  life,  she  organizes  into  it  the  base  and  bloody 
law  of  retaliation  ;  an  almost  ungovernable  tendency  to  evil 
for  evil.     She  is  taught  that  her  child  is  a  child  of  God ; 


106  THE   EJIPrRE   OP  THE   MOTHER. 

created  in  his  likeness,  and  born  in  his  image  ;  at  the  same 
time,  she  is  taught  that  her  child,  if  she  has  one,  must  be 
"  conceived  in  sin,  shapen  in  iniquity,  prone  to  evil,  and  sent 
away  from  its  birth  speaking  lies."  But,  who  conceives  her 
child  in  sin  ?  Who  shaped  it  in  iniquity  ?  Who  gave  it  a 
proneness  to  evil  ?  Who  sent  it  away  from  the  birth  speaking 
lies?  These  natural  and  simple  questions,  religions  and 
governments,  and  ministers  in  church  and  state  have  never 
attempted  to  ask  nor  answer.  But  while  woman,  body  and 
soul,  is  so  fearfully  and  fatally  diseased,  she  must  and  will 
organize  her  diseased  as  well  as  her  healthful  tendencies  into 
her  children.  She  will  organize  love  and  hate,  forgiveness  and 
revenge,  justice  and  injustice,  good  and  evil,  health  and  dis- 
ease, heaven  and  hell,  into  her  child.  But,  liedlth  is  the  law, 
to  body  and  soul ;  disease  the  exception.  Justice,  love, 
truth,  good  for  evil,  all  that  is  included  in  the  word  of  God, 
is  the  permanent ;  their  opposites  are  the  transient,  and  must 
pass  away.  The  God,  in  man,  lives  and  reigns  ;  let  the  race 
rejoice.     Let  all  " Mope  on^  and  hope  ever" 


THE  MOTHER  AS  A  TEACHER.  107 


CHAPTER    XI. 


THE  MOTHER  AS  A  TEACHER. 

She  is  our  teacher,  not  only  after  we  are  born,  but  before  ; 
and  the  pre-natal  lessons  of  the  mother  are  much  more 
potent  in  their  influence  on  our  destiny,  than  her  post-natal 
instructions. 

"  What  college  had  the  honor  of  being  your  Alma  3Iater  f  " 
was  once  asked  me  in  Scotland.  "  The  organism  of  my 
mother,"  said  I,  "  was  my  primary  school,  my  academy,  my 
college,  my  university,  and  the  only  college  from  which  I 
ever  graduated.  The  only  diploma  I  ever  had  was  signed 
and  sealed  by  my  mother,  as  president  of  that  educational 
institution.  That  diploma  empowered  me  to  live,  to  think, 
to  feel,  and  act  my  part  on  the  theatre  of  eternity."  Alma 
Mater  !  Dear  mother  indeed  to  me  !  The  lessons  inscribed 
on  my  body  and  soul  by  thee  can  never  be  erased  or  forgot- 
ten. The  teachings  of  priests  and  politicians,  of  church  and 
state,  of  pulpits  and  platforms,  of  books  and  creeds,  may  be 
forgotten  ;  but  thy  lessons,  dear  mother  !  are  imperishable  as 
the  soul  on  which  they  are  written. 

The  character  of  that  college,  and  the  lessons  taught  there, 
are  of  more  importance  to  the  race,  than  are  those  of  all  other 
colleges.  As  an  educational  institution  or  power,  the  maternal 
organism  is  more  important  to  mankind,  than  all  educational 
institutions  that  human  power  can  set  up.     That  institution 


108  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

over  Tvhicli  the  mother  presides,  and  whose  instructions  are 
in  her  keeping,  is  the  one  great  educational  power  of  the 
world.  Before  it,  all  others  are  but  as  dust  in  the  balance  ;  a 
drop  in  the  ocean.  It  controls  our  hourly,  daily  and  eterftal 
destiny.  The  lessons  of  all  other  teachers  may  be  erroneous, 
and  forgotten ;  but  her  instructions,  given  in  our  pre-natal 
life  and  education,  are  unerring,  and  can  never  be  forgotten. 

Would  that  the  mother,  as  the  gi-eat  teacher  of  the  race, 
w^ere  more  perfectly  prepared  to  give  lessons  of  love,  of  wis- 
dom, and  eternal  life  to  all  of  human  kind.  The  ^jre-natal 
Education  of  3fan !  This  will  one  day  be  regarded  as  the 
most  important  subject  to  which  Religions  and  Governments 
can  direct  attention.  In  this  work  both  parents  must  be  the 
teachers ;  more  especially  the  mother ;  and  no  pains  will  be 
spared  to  qualify  them  to  give  lessons  of  Love  and  Wisdom, 
and  not  of  Hate  and  Folly ;  lessons  that  lead  to  God  and 
Heaven,  and  not  that  lead  to  degradation  and  misery. 

What  is  done,  what  can  be  done,  to  qualify  the  mother  to 
be  the  teacher  of  truth,  and  only  truth,  to  the  race.  It  is  of 
moment  that  she  be  duly  qualified  to  fill  the  station  of  a  wise, 
loving,  unerring  teacher.  Where  are  the  normal  schools 
at  which  woman  may  be  instructed  and  qualified,  as  a  mother, 
to  become  the  lawgiver  and  teacher  of  the  race  ?  Are  there 
none  in  which  woman  may  be  taught  her  true  relations  to  the 
destiny  of  that  race  of  beings,  of  which  she  is  the  mother? 
Governments  and  churches  found  schools  and  colleges  to 
educate  men  and  prepare  them  to  be  lawyers,  doctors,  priests, 
statesmen,  legislators,  judges,  and  rulers  ;  but,  what  have  they 
done  to  found  schools  and  colleges  to  educate  women  in  the 
divine^  the  august  science  of  Maternity  ?  Geology,  chemistry, 
botany,  geography,  geometry,  theology ;  these,  and  other 
sciences,  are  sedulously  taught  by  church  and  state  ;  but  not 
a  school  has  church  or  state  ever  founded  to  teach  woman 


THE  MOTHER  AS  A  TEACHER.  109 

tliat  science  in  which  is  wrapt  up  the  destiny  of  individuals, 
of  states,  nations,  and  kingdoms,  and  of  the  race,  i.  e.,  the 
SCIENCE  OF  MATERNITY.  Alas !  for  the  folly,  the  stupidity, 
the  insanity  of  that  state  or  church  that  spares  no  labor  or 
expense,  to  educate  men  and  women  to  teach  a  district  school 
(a  most  laudable  object),  or  to  legislate  for,  or  rule  over  a 
petty  state  or  kingdom,  but  bestows  not  a  thought,  nor  a  dollar 
to  educate  her  for  her  diviae  mission  as  a  mother,  who  is  the 
teacher  and  legislator  of  the  race,  and  whose  lessons  and  legis- 
lation take  hold  on  eternity.  What  labor,  what  anxiety,  what 
self-denial  are  practised  by  fathers  to  educate  their  sons  to  fill 
a  professorship  in  some  petty  college  !  But  what  is  done  by 
those  fathers  to  educate  their  daughters  to  be  competent  profes- 
sors in  that  college  from  which  must  be  graduated  or  come 
forth,  all  the  individuals,  and  the  states  and  kingdoms  of  this 
world's  future  ?     Nothing  !  alas  !  Nothing  ! 

"Woman,  as  a  mother,  under  God,  is  the  author  of  that 
constitution  and  code  of  laws  by  which  the  destiny  of  every 
individual  man  and  woman,  and  every  church,  state,  nation 
and  kingdom,  must  be  decided.  Let  her  be  taught  how  to 
engrave  that  constitution  and  code  on  each  human  body  and 
soul,  unmixed  with  organic  diseases,  and  inherited  tendencies, 
appetites  and  passions,  that  must  necessarily  impede  the  true 
and  healthful  action  of  those  fixed  and  just  laws.  Let  her 
be  so  educated  that  she  may  impart  to  her  child,  in  its  pre- 
natal life,  the  lessons  that  must  lead  it  up  to  whatever  of 
beauty,  purity,  greatness  and  glory,  it  shall  ever  attain,  with- 
out intermingling  with  them  lessons  and  tendencies  that 
necessarily  lead  to  deformity,  impurity  and  infamy.  Now, 
while  the  mother  inscribes  health  on  the  body,  as  the  law  of 
its  being,  she  also  organizes  into  that  body  tendencies  to 
various  and  painful  diseases  ;  and  while  she  inscribes  on  the 
soul  lessons  of  wisdom,  love,  justice,  truth,  forgiveness  and 


110  THE  EMPmE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

self-sacrifice,  she  also  organizes  into  it  tendencies  to  hatred, 
injustice,  falsehood,  revenge  and  selfishness.  Thus,  mainly 
through  ignorance,  the  mother  lays  the  foundation  in  her 
child,  of  a  life-long  and  desperate  conflict  with  itself.  Thus, 
the  child,  in  far  distant  periods  of  its  existence,  is  victimized 
to  maternal  ignorance,  and  in  agony  of  spirit,  is  made  to  cry 
out,  "  when  I  would  do  good,  evil  is  present !  " 

In  the  name  of  humanity,  let  woman  be  taught  how  to 
furnish  herself  with  the  best  possible  materials,  of  which  to 
construct  the  human  organism,  the  most  delicate,  compli- 
cated and  wonderful  of  all  structures ;  and  then  let  her  be 
taught  how  to  put  those  materials  together,  so  as  to  form  the 
most  perfect  human  being.  Thus  let  her  be  qualified  to  be 
to  individuals,  states  and  kingdoms,  "  the  way,  the  truth,  and 
the  life." 


THE  MOTHER  A  PRIEST. 

Yes  ;  God's  true,  anointed,  and  ordained  priest,  to  minister 
at  the  great  altar  of  humanity.  From  the  hour  in  which  she, 
takes  charge  of  the  germ  of  a  new  life,  she  stands  before  the 
present  and  the  future  of  this  world,  and  in  presence  of 
eternity,  with  its  unending  years,  and  its  ceaseless  progres- 
sion, arrayed  in  robes  of  light,  as  God's  high  priest  to  her 
child.  Truly,  in  presence  of  the  unconscious  immortal  that 
is  being  developed  beneath  her  loving  heart,  she  stands  clothed 
with  light  as  with  a  garment.  A  crown  of  glory  is  on  her 
head,  a  diadem  of  beauty  encircles  her  brow,  and  she  awaits 
the  hour,  the  coronation  hour,  when  she  can  place  that  crown 
of  glory  upon  the  head  of  her  child,  and  encircle  its  brow 
with  that  diadem  of  beauty,  and  start  it  on  a  career  of  eternal 
life  and  unending  progression  under  happy  auspices. 


THE   MOTHER  A  PRIEST.  Ill 

No  oracles  of  Apollo  are  so  true,  and  so  sure  to  come  to  pass. 
No  priest  ever  stood  so  near  to  God,  and  to  the  objects  of  his 
ministrations  as  she  does.  No  prayers  are  ever  offered  so 
earnest,  so  deep,  so  agonizing,  as  those  offered  by  the  mother, 
the  great  high  priest  of  God,  in  behalf  of  the  dear  one  that 
is  being  developed  beneath  her  loving,  anxious  heart.  The 
ever  earnest  call  of  her  soul  unto  God  is,  that  her  babe  may 
be  blest  and  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God.  That  her 
child  may  be  born  with  a  healthy  body  and  soul,  adorned 
with  grace  and  beauty,  and  ever  grow  in  favor  wdth  God  and 
man.  Thus,  with  tenderest  love  and  heroic  fortitude,  she 
prepares  herself  for  the  august  martyrdom  of  maternity ; 
and  proudly  and  joyfully  lays  her  life  on  the  altar  of  sacrifice, 
with  a  "  Gloria  in  Excelsis  "  in  her  heart  and  on  her  lips. 

To  her  unborn  babe  she  daily  and  hourly  delivers  oracles, 
direct  from  the  heart  of  God.  She  stands,  as  it  were,  in  the 
place  of  God,  to  her  unborn  babe.  Men  are  educated  by 
the  church,  to  fill  the  office  of  priest,  and  to  administer  at 
what  is  called  the  altar  of  God,  i.  e.,  to  baptize,  to  administer 
sacraments,  to  pray,  to  preach,  and  act  as  go-betweens 
between  God  and  the  people.  Ecclesiastical  councils  license 
and  ordain  these  priests.  All  religions  have  their  priests ; 
but  the  mothers  of  the  race  are  its  true,  God-ordained  priest- 
hood. God  calls  the  mother  to  the  office  of  the  priest,  to  be 
his  minister,  his  High  Priest  to  enter  the  very  Holy  of 
Holies,  where  is  the  ark  of  the  covenant ;  and  there,  in  his 
name,  to  administer  to  the  embryo  man  or  woman,  not  by 
reading  and  expounding  what  others  have  said  and  done,  but 
by  organizing  into  its  very  being  a  code  of  fixed,  unchanging 
laws  or  conditions  of  life  and  health.  She  stands  between 
God  and  her  unborn  babe,  to  administer  to  it  the  image  and 
glory  of  God. 


112  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 


CHAFTEK  XII, 


THE  MOTHER  AS  A  PROPHET. 

"Who  but  the  mother  is  competent  to  read  the  future  of 
earth's  sons  and  daughters  ?  She  sees  their  future  of  weal  or 
woe  in  her  own  experiences  during  their  pre-natal  life.  No 
need  for  her  to  consult  the  stars,  to  learn  her  child's  destiny ; 
let  her  consult  her  own  conditions  of  body  and  soul,  between 
the  conception  and  birth  of  her  child.  No  need  to  look  into 
some  divining  glass,  nor  to  consult  the  "flight  of  birds,  nor 
other  mysterious  omens  and  oracles ;  let  her  look  into  the 
mirror  of  her  own  internal  experience.  In  that,  as  in  a 
divination  glass  presented  to  her  by  God,  the  Great  Divinator, 
she  may  see  the  future  of  her  child,  and  foretell  its  destiny,  as 
surely  as  she  can  see  effects  in  causes,  in  any  department  of 
life.  If  certain  conditions  are  present  in  the  mother,  corre- 
sponding results  must  follow  in  the  child.  Like  produces 
like  ;  health  produces  health,  disease,  disease  ;  love  produces 
love,  hatred,  hatred. 

Religion  teaches  that  God,  through  Moses,  David,  Isaiah, 
Paul,  and  other  prophets,  made  known  what  was  to  be  in  the 
distant  future.  But  far  niore  surely  does  he  make  known 
through  the  mother  the  future  character  and  destiny  of  indi- 
viduals and  nations.  For  in  maternal  conditions  hath  God 
written  the  future  of  the  race. 

In  the  highest  sense  is  the  mother  the  true  prophet  of  God 
to  the  race  ;  and  the  Divine  origin  of  her  commission  cannot 


THE  MOTHER  AS  A  PROPHET.  113 

be  doubted.  In  her  conditions  is  written  the  fate  of  kingdoms 
and  empires,  as  well  as  of  individuals.  In  her  experience 
during  the  pre-natal  life  of  man,  the  mother  can  speak  to 
coming  ages,  and,  in  the  name  of  God,  pronounce  their  doom 
for  weal  or  woe. 

The  throbbings  of  her  heart  are  prophetic  of  the  throbbings 
of  her  child's  heart,  in  the  far  distant  future.  In  her  own 
thoughts,  plans  and  purposes,  she  may  see  its  thoughts,  plans 
and  purposes,  as  it  speeds  on  its  pathway  of  immortality. 
Her  likes  and  dislikes,  her  loves  and  hatreds,  her  attractions 
and  repulsions,  and  her  sympathies,  are  but  a  prophecy,  sure 
and  unerring,  of  what  will  be  the  loves  and  hates,  the  attrac- 
tions and  repulsions,  and  sympathies  of  her  child,  when  its 
life  shall  be  blended  with  the  life  of  the  Past  in  the  spirit 
state.  In  her  vanity,  her  ambition,  her  selfishness,  her  irrita- 
bility, her  anger,  her  revenge,  she  may  see  and  foretell  the 
doom  of  her  child  in  regard  to  such  manifestations.  In  short, 
in  her  conditions  and  manifestations  of  her  intellectual,  social, 
moral,  affectional  and  passional  nature,  during  the  pre-natal 
life  of  her  child,  she  may  read  that  child's  intellectual,  social, 
moral,  affectional  and  passional  destiny,  as  it  mingles  with  its 
fellow-beings,  and  with  them  struggles  onward  and  upward  in 
its  career  of  eternal  life.  My  mother  !  My  mother  !  What 
wast  thou  to  me,  as  my  organic  e;s:istence  was  being  perfected 
under  the  pulsations  of  thy  gentle,  loving  heart,  and  from 
materials  derived  from  thy  blood,  but  a  prophecy  of  my  char- 
acter and  my  destiny,  both  in  and  out  of  the  body.  Thy  son 
will  ever  bless  and  honor  thee  for  the  measure  of  health  and 
happiness,  to  body  and  soul,  which  thou  didst  mete  out  to  him 
as  his  birthright  inheritance.  During  his  sixty-five  years  of 
experience  in  life,  he  has  not  been  called  to  one  week  of 
suffering  that  deserves  the  name.  "What  little  of  diseased 
and  inharmonious  action  of  his  physical  organism  he  has 
5* 


114  THE   EMPIRE   OF  THE   MOTHER. 

experienced,  has  been  easily  and  speedily  rectified  by  the 
energetic,  living,  ever-present  and  ever-watchful  Recuperator 
or  Redeemer  thou  didst  organize  into  him.  Thanksgiving  to 
thee,  my  loving  mother !  and  the  voice  of  melody  will  ever 
fill  my  heart  for  the  life  of  almost  uninterrupted  health  and 
happiness  thou  didst  organize  into  me.  Under  God,  "  thine 
shall  be  the  glory  forever,"  for  this  great  salvation,  and  for 
the  inestimable  gift  of  an  inborn  Saviour  so  vigilant,  and  so 
energetic  to  save. 

The  throbbings  of  the  mother's  heart  are  prophetic,  not  only 
of  the  destiny  of  individuals,  in  their  distant  future,  but  also 
of  the  character  and  destiny  of  states  and  kingdoms.  As 
are  the  individuals  composing  them,  so  are  states  and  nations. 
As  shall  be  the  individual  men  and  women  of  the  future,  so 
will  be  the  states  and  nations  of  the  future.  The  power  that 
determines  the  character  and  destiny  of  the  individuals  of 
the  future,  must  also  determine  the  character  and  destiny 
of  the  governments  and  nations  of  that  future.  The  power 
that  holds  in  its  keeping,  the  life  and  happiness  of  individuals, 
holds  in  its  keeping  the  life  and  prosperity  of  nations. 

Where  are  the  men  and  women  of  the  future?  As  yet 
they  are  not.  Whence  are  they  to  come  ?  From  the  organ- 
ism of  woman,  that  fountain  of  organic  life,  from  which  all 
the  countless  millions  of  human  beings  that  are  to  people 
this  planet  in  the  coming  ages,  are  to  derive  their  existence, 
their  vitality,  and  their  innate  proclivities.  From  the  femi- 
nine organisms  of  the  present,  are  to  proceed  the  men  and 
women  who  are  to  establish  and  administer  the  governmental 
and  ecclesiastical  establishments  of  the  future ;  who  are  to 
give  existence  and  character  to  all  the  literary,  commercial, 
social,  political  and  religious  institutions  that  are  to  do  their 
part  in  moulding  the  domestic  and  social  relations  of  coming 
generations.     And  what  is  the  condition  of  these  organisms 


THE   MOTHER   AS   A  PROPHET.  115 

in  which  is  wrapt  up  the  destiny  of  this  world's  future  ?  The 
organism  of  woman !  That  fountain  of  life,  character  and 
destiny  to  the  race  !  AYhat  is  its  present  state  ?  In  it  are 
all  the  elements  of  a  healthy,  noble,  glorious  life  and  destiny 
to  the  individuals  and  nations  of  the  future  ;  but  how  mixed 
up  with  elements  of  every  foul  disease  and  suffering, ^and  of 
vice,  discord,  tyranny,  and  every  crime.  Deriving  existence 
from  such  a  diseased  fountain,  what  appalling  scenes  of 
human  wretchedness  must  be  the  doom  of  the  world's  future. 
See  that  maternal  heart  under  whose  pulsations  and  aus- 
pices the  organic  existence  of  Napoleon  was  begun  and 
completed.  Every  pulsation  of  that  mother's  heart,  during 
the  pre-natal  life  of  her  child,  was  prophetic  of  the  rise  and 
fall  of  kingdoms  and  empires  ;  the  watchword  of  revolution. 
Europe  bowed  to  the  pulsations  of  that  maternal  heart,  and 
confessed  that  her  destiny  for  ages,  hung  upon  its  decisions. 
The  thoughts,  feelings,  hopes  and  aspirations  of  that  mother's 
soul  gave  tone  and  character  to  the  pulsations  of  that  mater- 
nal heart.  The  throbbings  of  that  heart  controlled  the  con- 
ditions of  that  maternal  organism.  The  conditions  of  that 
maternal  organism  controlled  the  physical,  intellectual,  social 
and  spiritual  conditions  of  the  child,  and  of  the  future  Empe- 
ror and  warrior.  That  mother,  in  her  own  experiences  during 
the  pre-natal  life  of  her  son,  might  have  read  the  fate  of 
Europe  in  the  far  distant  future,  had  she  known  how  to 
interpret  them. 

A  Fact.  —  The  following  sad  incident  occurred  in  my 
experience.  I  had  lectured  in  a  country  town  in  New 
England,  on  the  pre-natal  life  and  education  of  man.  A 
woman,  a  mother  with  her  son  of  three  years  old,  called 
upon  me.  I  was  mucli  interested  in  her  boy,  so  perfect  in 
its  physical  organization.      The  child   stepped  out   of  the 


116  THE  EMPIRE   OF   THE   MOTHER. 

room,  attracted  by  other  children.  To  the  mother,  I  said, 
"  What  a  healthy,  noble  boy  you  have.  One  of  whom  any 
mother  might  well  be  proud."  To  my  amazement,  she, 
bursting  into  tears,  exclaimed,  "  I  long  and  pray  for  his 
death  !  It  would  be  an  infinite  relief  to  me  to  lay  that  form, 
so  healthy,  strong  and  perfect,  in  the  grave."  "  Your  con- 
duct," I  replied,  "  seems  most  unnatural  and  monstrous." 
"  I  know  it  must  seem  so  to  yoii,  sir,  still  I  long  to  see  him 
draw  his  last  breath  in  childhood,  for  so  surely  as  he  lives, 
he  will  become  a  murderer,  and  meet  the  murderer's  doom 
on  the  gallows."  *'  On  what  do  you  base  your  unmotherly, 
unnatural  prophecy?"  I  asked.  "On  my  own  conditions 
before  his  birth,"  said  she  ;  "  from  his  conception  to  his  birth, 
I  longed  and  labored  for  his  death.  I  did  all  I  could  and 
dared  to  do,  to  kill  my  child  without  killing  myself.  My 
heart  was  filled  with  the  spirit  of  murder  against  the  life  of 
my  child.  He  struggled  into  life  against  the  spirit  of  murder 
in  the  heart  of  his  mother.  That  he  was  born  a  living  child 
was  my  deepest  anguish,  for,  too  truly,  my  spirit  foreboded 
what  he  must  be,  whose  pre-natal  life  and  education  was 
completed  beneath  a  heart  whose  every  throb  was  a  threat 
of  death,  and  a  protest  against  its  existence."  "  But,"  I 
asked,  "  does  his  post-natal  life  thus  far  correspond  with  your 
conditions  during  his  pre-natal  life?"  "  Oh,  too  truly,  too 
fatally,"  said  the  weeping  mother  ;  "  I  cannot  awaken  in  him 
the  least  sympathy  and  consideration  for  the  persons  of 
others.  He  is  utterly  callous  about  inflicting  wounds  and 
death  on  others.  If  his  parents,  or  any  body,  offend  him,  he 
strikes  at  their  faces  or  persons,  with  whatever  sharp  or 
deadly  weapon  he  may  happen  to  have,  or  that  lies  within 
his  reach.  I  dare  not  leave  him  alone  with  other  children, 
for  fear  he  will  kill  them.  God  forgive  me  !  "  cried  the  poor 
mother,  "  I  knew  not  Avhat  I  was  doing !     I  knew  not  that 


THE  MOTHER  AS  A  PROPHET.  117 

my  conditions  were  being  stamped  on  my  poor,  unconscious, 
unborn  child ! " 

See  Christendom  paying  homage  to  the  spirit  and  life  of 
Jesus  !  That  spirit  and  life  were  the  natural  results  of  the 
conditions  of  that  maternal  organism  in  which  his  organic 
existence  was  begun  and  completed.  Had  she  known  how  to 
read  results  in  their  antecedents,  what  a  future  for  the  race 
might  not  the  mother  of  Jesus  have  seen  in  her  physical, 
intellectual,  social,  and  spiritual  conditions,  during  his  gesta- 
tional life  !  The  pulsations  of  her  heart  had  been  to  her 
prophetic  of  the  time  when  violence  should  cease,  when  the 
nations  of  the  earth  should  recognize  her  unborn  child  as 
"King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords,"  and  "the  kingdoms  of 
this  world  should  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  God ; "  and 
the  "  Lord  God  Omnipotent  reign  "  over  all  the  earth,  through 
his  vice^rerent  —  the  Mother. 


118  THE  EMPniE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


THE  :M0THER  as  a  MESSIAH. 

The  work  to  be  clone  is,  to  elevate  and  perfect  Human 
Nature.  This  can  be  done  only  in  one  way,  i.  e.,  by  curing 
the  human  organism  of  its  diseases,  and  bringing  it  into  a 
healthy  state  in  all  its  functions.  Health  is  Heaven, 
Disease  is  Hell.  Man  will  find  no  hell,  except  the  hell 
he  carries  in  him.  Wherever  we  go,  if  we  carry  hell,  we 
shall  find  it.  How  can  hell  be  expelled  from  the  human 
organism?  Expel  disease,  and  the  work  is  done.  Bring 
that  organism  into  a  state  of  healthy,  harmonious  action,  in 
all  its  relations,  and  man  is  saved  from  hell  and  raised  to 
heaven.  Heal  body  and  soul  of  their  diseased  and  discordant 
action,  and  the  man  is  saved  in  the  only  sense  in  which  he 
can  be.  He  is  rescued  from  a  hell-state,  and  placed  in  a 
heaven-state. 

We  find  what  we  carry.  If  we  carry  cancer,  dys- 
pepsia, neuralgia,  consumption,  or  other  physical  diseases,  we 
shall  find  physical  hell  wherever  we  go.  If  we  carry  anger, 
wrath,  hate,  revenge,  jealousy,  envy,  suspicion,  ambition, 
or  other  psychical  diseases,  we  shall  find  a  i^sycJiical  hell 
wherever  we  go,  whether  in  the  body  or  out  of  it.  And 
this  is  the  only  salvation,  i.  e.,  to  rescue  the  human  being 
from  a  diseased,  or  hell-state,  and  bring  it  into  a  healthy,  or 
heaven-state. 


THE   MOTHER  AS   A  MESSIAH.  119 

On  whom,  above  all  others,  has  God  imposed  this  work 
of  rescuing  man  from  disease  and  suffering,  and  elevating 
him  to  health  and  heaven  ?  Whom  has  God  appointed  to 
this  work  of  saving  the  race  ?  Whom  has  he  sent  on  this 
mission  of  redemption,  this  embassy  of  love  and  mercy  to 
the  human  family?  The  work  to  be  done  is  simple  and 
easily  comprehended,  i.  e.,  to  cure  the  human  organism  of 
its  diseases.  Who  is  the  God-appointed  physician  to  per- 
form this  cure,  and  thus  to  be  the  true  Messiah  and  Saviour 
of  the  race  ?  All  nature  answers,  —  the  Mother.  No  being 
can  hold  a  relation  to  the  human  family  so  intimate  and  so 
potential  as  she  does.  The  three  facts  to  which  attention 
has  been  called,  cannot  be  true  of  any  other  being ;  i.  e. :  — 

1.  The  organic  existence  of  every  hiiman  being 
is  begun  and  completed  "vvithin  the  organism  of  the 

MOTHER. 

2.  From  her  blood  must  come  the  materials  of 
which  every  human  organism  is  3iade. 

3.  Whatever  disease  lurks  in  her  blood  must  be 
organized  into  her  child. 

The  destiny  of  the  race  is  in  the  hands  of  the  being  of 
whom  these  facts  are  true,  and  who  is  thus  intimately  related 
to  every  child  that  is  born.  We  know  the  entire  work 
of  organization  must  be  done  under  the  direction  of  that 
plastic  power  that  God  has  placed  in  her  for  this  purpose. 
From  conception  to  birth,  such  is  the  relation  between  the 
mother  and  child  that  every  pulsation  of  her  heart,  every 
action  of  her  intellect,  and  of  her  affections,  sympathies, 
passions  and  appetites,  bear  directly  on  the  organic  condi- 
tions and  constitutional  tendencies,  and,  of  course,  on  the 
post-natal  character  and  destiny  of  her  child.  Whose 
power,  for  good  or  evil,  can  be  so  great  as  the  mother's? 
It  is' not  possible,  in  the  nature  of  things,  for  man  to  wield 


120  THE  EMPIRE  OP  THE  MOTHER. 

such  power.  To  this,  the  facts  just  stated,  touching  the 
relations  of  the  mother  to  her  child  and  her  direct  power 
over  it,  fully  attest.  It  is  not  possible  for  any  created  being 
to  hold  relations  with  the  human  race  so  intimate  and  wield 
a  power  so  direct  and  extensive,  as  that  which  is  held  and 
wielded  by  the  mother. 

In  the  history  of  man,  every  age  and  nation  have  thos6  who 
are  regarded  as  sent  of  God  to  heal  and  save.  They  are 
called  the  Messiahs,  the  Saviours,  or  Redeemers  of  man- 
kind. In  all  countries  and  religions  are  men  who  are  regarded 
as  commissioned  and  sent  of  God  to  heal  the  human  organ- 
ism of  its  diseases,  and  restore  it  to  health ;  to  expel  hell 
from  it,  and  introduce  heaven  into  it ;  and  men  are  educated, 
set  apart,  licensed  and  ordained  as  priests  and  teachers,  to 
point  the  world  to  those  reputed  Messiahs  and  Saviours,  to 
save  them  from  abnormal  acts  and  their  results  ;  or,  in  other 
words,  to  restore  healthy  action  to  all  our  powers  of  body 
and  soul,  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  and  to  make  us  the  true, 
loving,  gentle,  noble  and  happy  men  and  women  we  were 
designed  to  be,  and  are  capable  of  being.  These  Messiahs 
and  the  religions  taught  by  them,  are  of  use  to  mankind,  and 
worthy  of  regard  only  so  far  as  they  seek  to  expel,  and  do 
expel,  disease  and  hell  from  the  human  body  and  soul,  and 
bring  into  them  health  and  heaven.  None  of  these  Redeem- 
ers can  possibly  exert  an  influence  so  direct  and  potent,  over 
the  character  and  destiny  of  man,  as  that  which  is  exerted 
by  the  mother.  Not  one  of  them  can  possibly  enter  into  a 
relation  to  the  physical  and  psychical  organization,  the  intel- 
lectual, social,  sympathetic  and  passional  nature  of  man,  so 
intimate,  so  direct,  so  endearing,  and  so  enduring,  as  that 
which  every  mother  holds  to  her  child. 

Though  model  characters  of  the  past,  —  as  the  incarnations 
of  love,  justice,  truth,  self-abnegation  and  good  for  evil,  and 


THE    MOTHER   AS    A   MESSIAH.  121 

of  fidelity  to  their  own  convictions,  and  unfaltering  loyalty  to 
their  own  higher  nature  ;  though  their  sj^irit,  if  imbibed,  and 
their  teachings,  if  followed,  might  beautify  and  ennoble,  yet 
nothing  which  they  have  said  or  done  can  possibly  bear  so 
directly  on  our  interior  and  exterior  life,  and  on  our  destiny, 
as  the  spirit  and  teachings  and  conditions  of  the  mother.  No 
man  can  be  a  Saviour,  to  save  us  from  transgression  and  its 
consequences,  and  form  and  train  us  to  cease  to  do  evil,  and 
learn  us  to  do  well ;  no  man  can  be  commissioned  and  sent 
of  God,  to  set  up  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  the  human 
organism,  and  inaugurate  the  reign  of  "  peace  on  earth  and 
good  will  among  men,"  as  the  mother  can  be  and  is  ;  because 
no  man  can  hold  a  relation  to  mankind  so  direct,  so  absolute 
and  vitalizing  as  she  must,  nor  hold  in  his  keeping  the  char- 
acter and  destiny  of  the  race,  in  the  sense  that  she  does. 
The  mother  is  to  her  child,  in  a  sense  in  which  no  man  can 
be,  "  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life."  As  a  general  rule,  the 
same  tendencies  must  be  in  the  child  that  are  in  the  mother. 
As  a  birthright  inheritance,  the  child  must  put  on  the  mother, 
and  be  clothed  with  her  spirit  and  conditions  of  body  and 
soul,  more  entirely  than  any  other  being.  The  mother,  body 
and  soul,  must  be  born  into  the  child,  and  become  a  part  of 
its  nature,  and  the  governing  power  of  its  destiny,  in  the 
body  and  out  of  it,  in  a  sense  in  which  no  other  recognized 
Saviour  of  the  dead  past,  or  of  the  living  present,  can  pos- 
sibly be. 

"We  know  that  health  and  heaven,  or  salvation,  must  result 
from  the  operation  of  the  fixed  laws  of  life  and  health,  under- 
stood and  obeyed.  Who  is  chosen  and  commissioned  of  God 
to  inscribe  these  laws  on  human  bodies  and  souls  ?  Not  man, 
but  woman  ;  not  the  father,  but  the  mother.  The  mother 
is  commissioned,  not  only  to  enact,  but  also  to  expound 
and  enforce  them.     Millions  of  men  are  trained  to  go  forth 


122  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

and  point  the  world  to  those  who  have  been  received  as  God- 
anointed  and  God-inspired  teachers  and  Messiahs  of  the  past, 
to  learn  what  these  laws  are,  and  find  motives  to  obey  them. 
But  what  has  been  done  by  churches,  or  states  and  nations, 
to  teach  woman  how  most  perfectly  to  organize  into  each 
child  the  kingdom  of  heaven  as  a  birthright  legacy,  and  thus 
to  become  true  saviours  ?  No  pains  are  spared  to  teach  the 
young  daughters  of  the  race  those  things  which  may  give 
them  a  transient  popularity  and  standing  in  society  ;  but  what 
is  done  to  fit  them  for  the  one  grand  and  holy  mission  of 
their  existence,  i.  e.,  as  mothers,  to  organize  into  those  whose 
existence  and  destiny  are  to  be  derived  from  their  organisms, 
love,  justice,  truth,  purity  and  heaven  ;  in  a  word,  health  of 
body  and  soul,  and  thus  to  be  the  true  saviours  of  human 
beings  —  to  save  them  from  wrong-doing  and  its  sad  results, 
by  enthroning  a  God  of  love  and  justice  over  the  soul  of 
each  child,  as  its  only  redeeming  and  governing  power  during 
its  eternal  existence? 

The  Gospel  op  Generation  —  The  Gospel  op  Re- 
generation.—  Which  is  the  Gospel  of  God  to  save  the 
human  race  from  disease  and  sufiering,  and  give  to  it  health 
and  happiness?  The  Gospel  of  Generation  proposes  to 
to  save  the  world,  and  establish  on  earth  the  reign  of  Justice, 
Freedom,  and  Fraternity,  by  having  the  human  organism 
constructed  of  sound  materials,  and  by  having  these  healthy 
materials  harmoniously  put  together  in  the  pre-natal  state. 
The  Gospel  of  Regeneration  proposes  to  accomplish  the 
same  end  by  ignoring  Generation  as  a  means  of  salvation, 
and  pointing  to  Repentance  and  Reformation  as  the  only 
hope  of  the  world ;  the  Gospel  of  Generation  proposes  to 
save  the  world  by  having  all  human  beings  conceived  in  love 
and  purity,  shapen  in  the  likeness  of  God,  prone  to  good, 


THE    MOTHER   AS    A   MESSIAH.  123 

and  sent  away  from  the  birth  speaking  truth  ;  the  Gospel  of 
Regeneration  proposes  to  reach  the  same  result  by  Repent- 
ance, after  they  have  been  "  conceived  in  sin,  shapen  in 
iniquity,  prone  to  evil,  and  sent  away  from  the  birth  speak- 
ing lies."  The  Gospel  of  Generation  would  prevent  men 
from  becoming  criminals ;  the  Gospel  of  Regeneration  aims 
to  reform  or  punish  them  after  crime  is  organized  into  them. 
The  former  seeks  to  save  by  preventing  the  weeds  and  tares 
from  getting  into  the  field  ;  the  latter  aims  to  save  by  trying 
to  dig  and  root  them  out  after  their  seeds  are  sown,  and  they 
have  taken  deep  root.  The  one  would  save  from  burning, 
by  keeping  human  beings  out  of  the  fire ;  the  other  would 
accomplish  the  same  end,  by  snatching  them  from  the  flames 
after  they  have  been  cast  into  the  fire,  and  have  been  scorched 
and  nearly  consumed  by  the  devouring  element. 

The  mother  is  sent  of  God  to  save  the  world  by  organ- 
izing the  kingdom  of  heaven  into  tlie  child  before  it  is 
born ;  and  then,  after  it  is  born,  with  the  assistance  of 
the  father,  and  other  teachers  and  Messiahs,  to  develop  and 
perfect  that  kingdom,  and  make  it  the  only  governing  power. 
The  mother  is  not  only  designed  to  be  a  Saviour  herself,  but, 
as  such,  she  is  set  apart  by  God  to  see  to  it  that  a  true  and 
efficient  Saviour,  all-competent  to  save  from  disease  of  body 
and  soul,  is  organized  into  each  child,  and  made  an  essential 
element  of  its  existence.  Her  mission  to  her  unborn  child 
is,  to  see  to  it,  that,  when  her  child  is  born,  a  Saviour  is 
horn  luitli  it  and  in  it.  Her  great  mission  is,  to  publish  to 
all  of  human  kind  "  glad  tidings  of  great  joy,"  through  a 
healthy  and  happy  organization ;  the  mission  of  all  other 
Messiahs  has  been  to  publish  the  same,  through  Repentance 
and  Reformation !  The  mother,  as  a  Saviom',  introduces 
the  child  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  at  the  first  and  natural 
birth  ;    other   Saviours   labor   to   do   the   same  thing  by  a 


124  THE   EIVIPIRE   OF   THE   MOTHER. 

second  and  supernatural  birth.  Which  is  the  wisest,  most 
expedient,  and  attended  with  the  least  risk  and  suffering,  to 
start  a  human  being  right  at  first,  and  then,  by  wise  and 
loving  teachings,  to  keep  him  right ;  or  to  start  him  wrong, 
by  organizing  into  him  tendencies  to  wrong,  and  then,  after 
he  is  cursed  with  an  all  but  ungovernable  propensity  to  in- 
temperance, to  tyranny,  to  man-stealing,  to  prostitution,  to 
injustice,  theft,  robbery,  and  murder,  and  after  he  has  run  a 
course  of  vice  and  crime  till  the  heart  is  callous,  reason  is 
darkened,  and  the  voice  of  conscience  hushed,  to  try  to  get 
him  right  ?  Better  to  start  the  child  right  and  keep  it  right, 
than  to  start  it  wrong,  and  then  labor  to  get  it  right.  Better 
to  "beat  swords  into  plough-shares  and  spears  into  pruning- 
hooks,"  and  to  teach  the  world  to  learn  war  no  more,  by 
organizing  into  the  human  soul  Love,  Forgiveness,  and  Good 
for  Evil ;  than  to  seek  the  same  end,  by  organizing  into  it 
Hatred,  Revenge,  and  Evil  for  Evil,  and  then  by  Peniten- 
tiaries and  Gallows  to  try  and  keep  men  from  acting  out 
these  innate  propensities  to  violence  and  blood.  Far,  far 
better  to  save  from  drunkenness  by  organizing  into  the 
human  soul  a  taste  for  pure  water,  and  nothing  else,  as  a 
beverage,  than  to  organize  into  it  the  drunkard's  appetite,  — 
a  longing  for  alcoholic,  narcotic,  and  exciting  drinks,  —  and 
then  to  try  to  eradicate  that  appetite,  after  it  has  its  poor, 
besotted  victim  in  its  deadly  grasp.  It  is  wiser,  more  natural, 
more  kind,  and  more  certain  of  success,  to  guide  a  soul  to 
heaven  by  starting  it  in  that  direction  at  the  outset  of  its 
long  and  endless  journey,  than  to  start  it  in  an  opposite  direc- 
tion, and  then  pray,  and  preach,  and  labor  to  stop  it  in  its 
hell-bound  career,  and  get  it  to  turn  about  and  struggle 
against  fierce  and  debasing  propensities,  to  reach  that  heaven- 
state  designed  by  God  to  be  its  birthright  inheritance. 

Thus,  the  Gospel  of  Generation,  is  the  Gospel  of  Nature 


^  THE    MOTHER   AS   A   MESSIAH.  125 

and  of  Nature's  God  ;  and  tlip  mother,  owing  to  the  peculiar 
and  most  intimate  relation  which  she  holds  to  the  pre-natal 
life  and  organization  of  every  human  being,  is  designed  to 
be,  and  can  be,  the  natural  Saviour  of  the  race.  "  God  is 
Love,  and  he  that  dwelleth  in  Love,  dwelleth  in  God,  and 
God  in  him."  A  more  sublime  and  comprehensive  expres- 
sion was  never  uttered.  No  truth,  ever  spoken  in  words,  is 
more  vital  to  the  redemption  of  mankind.  To  the  mother 
belongs  the  prerogative  and  the  most  august  of  all  missions, 
of  conferring  on  every  human  being,  as  a  birthright  inherit- 
ance, such  a  nature  as  will  enable  him  from  the  outset  of 
life,  and  during  all  his  course  of  eternal  progression,  to 
embody  and  actualize,  in  his  own  person,  the  truth,  that  "  to 
dwell  in  Love  is  to  dwell  in  God."  Such  a  nature  —  which 
will  turn  and  be  attracted  to  Love  and  to  God,  as  naturally 
and  necessarily  as  the  needle  turns  to  the  Pole  —  has  every 
child  a  right  to  demand  of  its  mother ;  and  the  mother,  who, 
for  any  cause,  refuses  to  organize  into  her  child  this  salva- 
tion, this  divine  nature,  and  thus  to  enstamp  upon  its  soul 
the  pure,  unsullied  image  of  God,  does  it  a  grievous  wrong. 

It  will  be  asked.  How  are  those  to  be  saved  who  "  are 
conceived  in  sin,  shapen  in  iniquity,  prone  to  evil,  and  who 
go  away  from  the  birth  speaking  lies  ?  "  All  such  must  be 
born  again.  To  them  the  Gospel  of  Regeneration  is  the  only 
"  glad  tidings  of  great  joy."  Repentance,  Reformation,  or 
Regeneration,  is  the  only  door  by  which  they  can  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  ;  yet  it  had  been  better  for  them,  —  had 
saved  them  from  much  suffering,  from  bitter  self-reproach, 
and  shame  and  anguish,  —  had  they  entered  the  kingdom  of 
God  through  the  door  of  Generation,  with  a  gentle,  loving, 
tender  mother  to  crown  them  with  glory  at  their  birth,  and 
to  fit  them  out  with  healthy,  vigorous  and  perfect  bodies  and 
souls  to  enable  them  to  meet  bravely  and  triumphantly  what- 
ever obstacles  may  lie  in  their  pathway  of  eternal  life. 


126  THE   EJIPIRE    OF   THE   MOTHER. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


THE  TKIUMPH  OF  REASON  AND  CONSCIENCE. 

Man  is  not  made  to  be  governed  by  instinct,  passion,  or 
appetite.  These  should  ever  be  nnder  the  control  of  reason 
and  conscience.  This  should  ever  be  the  case  with  parent- 
age, and  the  relation  that  leads  to  it.  Neither  man  nor 
woman  has  a  right  to  inflict  pain  and  suffering  on  others, 
especially  on  their  children,  for  their  own  gratification.  Off- 
spring is  a  demand  of  Human  Nature.  But  if  the  physical 
and  psychical  conditions  of  the  husband  and  wife  —  or  of 
either  of  them  —  be  such  that  this  demand  of  their  nature 
cannot  be  met  without  inflicting  great  wrong  and  suffering 
on  their  child,  what  ought  they  to  do  ?  Sacrifice  themselves 
by  foregoing  the  fulfilment  of  that  demand,  or  satisfy  this 
demand  at  the  expense  of  their  children  ?  If  a  wife  cannot 
become  a  mother  without  entailing  on  her  child  a  frightful 
legacy  of  pain  and  anguish,  is  it  right  for  her  to  give  exist- 
ence to  a  child?  Should  not  the  maternal  instinct  in  this 
case  be  controlled  by  reason  and  conscience  ?  If  so,  what  is 
their  decision  ? 

I  would  commend  the  following  letter  to  the  attentive 
perusal  of  every  conscientious  man  and  woman  who  would 
bring  their  entire  nature  under  the  government  of  that  God 
who  pleads  for  justice  and  right  in  their  own  souls,  and  to 
whom  they  pray  —  "  Thy  kingdom  come  ;  Thy  will  be  done 


TRIUMPH   OF   REASON   AND    CONSCIENCE.  127 

on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  The  letter  deserves  earnest 
consideration.  It  is  impossible  not  to  respect  the  earnest  and 
conscientious  writer. 

"  Henry  C.  Wright  :  My  Friend,  —  I  have  lately  been 
reading  your  works,  entitled  '  Marriage  and  Parentage,'  and 
'  The  Unwelcome  Child ; '  and  the  tone  of  those  works  has 
led  me  to  write  you  an  account  of  my  own  experiences; 
more  particularly,  as  the  stand  which  I  have  taken  has  been 
in  a  great  measure  caused  by  the  principles  therein  advanced. 
I  ask  not  pardon  for  the  liberty ;  you  will  not  require  it. 
The  experience  of  any  woman,  so  far  as  her  maternal  instincts 
are  concerned,  must  be  of  interest  to  you  ;  inasmuch  as  it  is 
upon  known  facts  that  all  correct  and  valuable  conclusions 
must  rest ;  and  any  fact  must  be  of  service  to  you.  In  relat- 
ing my  experience,  I  shall  not  feel  called  upon  to  fetter 
myself  by  any  conventional  proprieties  as  they  are  termed, 
and  in  stepping  into  the  broad  field  which  lies  beyond  mere 
conventionalisms,  I  feel  that  I  shall  have  the  approval  of 
every  honest  and  candid  spirit,  that  views  these  things  from 
their  only  true  stand-point  —  their  hearing  upon  the  iveal  or 
woe  of  millions  yet  unhorn. 

"  I  am  a  wife  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word.  God  him- 
self has  signified  to  me  that  such  is  the  case.  I  have  what 
makes  me  truly  a  wife  in  the  sight  of  God  —  a  consciousness 
that  I  love  as  a  wife.  This  consciousness,  '  signed,  sealed  and 
delivered '  by  God  himself,  is  the  unmistakable  evidence  that 
I  am  a  wife.  I  love  my  husband,  and  that  love  constitutes 
me  a  wife.  This  consciousness  of  loving  is  a  renewing  of  my 
whole  nature.  Were  it  not  so,  it  would  not  be  true  conjugal 
love.  True,  conjugal  love,  never  yet  failed  to  bring  a  soul 
into  the  kingdom  of  God.  It  must  bless  its  subject  and  its 
object.      It  cannot  injure  the  peace  of  that  soul  which  is 


128  THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  MOTHER. 

regenerated  by  it.  Thus  a  great  want  in  my  womanly  nature 
is  met.  The  deep,  ever-present  love  of  a  wife  lifts  my  soul 
to  God  and  His  Kingdom.  It  asks  for  its  reward  only  its 
existence  in  my  soul.  There  it  rests  to  bless  and  to  ennoble, 
wholly  independent  of  any  one  outside  of  myself.  Thus  my 
womanly  nature,  in  at  least  one  of  its  elements,  is  born  again, 
and  saved  from  .the  desolation  which  must  ever  exist  in  the 
heart  of  that  woman  who  is  unregenerated  by  the  love  of  a 
wife. 

''  But  there  is  another  element  stern  and  mighty  in  the 
nature  of  every  true  woman  ;  more  particularly  of  one  born 
into  the  kingdom  of  conjugal  love,  i.  e.,  the  desire  to  be 
A  mother.  The  love. of  a  wife  constitutes  a  wife,  but  the 
desire  to  be  a  mother  does  not  constitute  a  mother ;  and  as 
wc  never  can  know  of  the  love  of  a  wife,  until  it  is  called  into 
existence  by  a  husband,  so  we  can  never  know  the  height, 
depth  and  breadth,  of  the  love  of  a  mother,  until  it  is  called 
into  conscious  existence  by  a  child.  As  the  failure  to  recipro- 
cate the  love  of  a  wife  on  the  part  of  the  husband  does  not 
affect  her  love  as  a  wife,  so  the  failure  of  a  child  who  might 
be  so  unnatural  as  to  fail  to  reciprocate  its  mother's  love,  does 
not  effect  a  change  in  that  love.  But  once  let  that  love  as  a 
mother  be  called  into  existence  by  a  child,  and  that  love  will 
always  remain  in  the  soul  of  that  mother,  to  lead  her  onward 
and  upward.  As  I  have  felt  the  sacred  influences  of  the 
love  of  a  wife,  and  through  it,  been  made  to  see  ;  so  do  I  now 
most  earnestly  call  for  the  consciousness  of  a  mother's  love. 

"  But  why  cannot  I  be  a  mother?  You  ask,  '  Does  not  thy 
husband  respond  to  this  call  of  thy  nature  ? '  Yes ;  he 
desires  to  be  the  father  of  my  child.  He  would  meet  this 
great  want  of  my  being  and  crown  me  with  this  great  blessing. 
But  still  the  precious  boon  is  denied  me.    Why?     Because  I 

cannot,  I  DARE  NOT,  CURSE  MY  CHILD  WITH  MY  PHYSICAL 


TRIUMPH  OF  REASON  AND   CONSCIENCE.  129 

DISEASES.  Because  justice  forbids  me  to  call  into  being  a 
sickly,  diseased  child.  And  yet  I  am  healthier  than  most 
women.  People  look  upon  me  and  say,  '  What  a  strong, 
healthy  body  you  have.'  But  underneath  my  present  out- 
ward health  lurks  the  scourge  —  scrofula.  My  childhood  was, 
for  the  most  part  of  it,  spent  in  a  body  covered  with  scrofu- 
lous sores,  affecting  my  eyesight,  causing  me  to  be  laid  upon 
the  bed  of  suffering  for  months,  and  spending  hours  which 
ought  to  have  been  spent  in  God's  sunlight,  within  the  walls 
of  a  darkened  room  ;  and  though,  with  the  help  of  a  strong 
constitution,  its  ravages  have  been  partially  checked,  still, 
now,  it  frequently  gives  tokens  of  its  presence  by  painful 
abscesses,  which  take  me  down  in  all  my  seeming  health 
and  strength.  Can  I  give  this  to  my  child  ?  Would  not  the 
suffering  of  my  child  be  an  ever-present  condemnation  to 
me?  Think  of  a  helpless  child,  at  first  dependent  on  the 
blood  of  its  mother  for  sustenance,  and  obtaining  its  life 
therefrom,  during  its  pre-natal  development.  Think  of  the 
helpless  germ  of  a  human  being,  with  no  power  to  choose  its 
place  of  development,  deposited  where  it  can  draw  nothing 
but  disease  and  destruction  to  its  physical  nature.  Think  of 
the  child  after  it  is  born,  trustingly  drawing  its  sustenance 
from  the  breast  of  its  mother,  and  at  every  breath,  drawing 
sickness  and  death  therefrom.  Though  I  long  to  press  my 
child  to  my  bosom,  to  feel  that  its  life  depends  on  the  nour- 
ishment it  receives  there,  can  I  do  so  knowing  that  that 
nourishment  is  full  of  scrofula  and  will  curse  my  child ! 

"My  friend!  Pity  me  you  must,  for  surely  I  need  pity. 
It  is  not  my  fault  that  I  am  called  upon  to  take  up  this  cross. 
My  parents,  (God  forgive  them,)  without  regard  for  my 
welfare,  brought  me  into  being.  Both  of  them  uniting  to  fill 
my  body  with  disease.  The  germ  was  diseased,  and  placed  in  a 
diseased  organism,  there  to  be  developed  into  a  body,  which 
6 


130  THE  EMPIRE  OP  THE  MOTHER. 

became  the  habitation  of  a  human  soul.  And  this  diseased 
habitation  was  my  birthright  inheritance.  Hard  it  would  be, 
even  if  my  parents  gave  me  an  existence  because  they 
wanted  me.  But  they  did  not.  I  was  the  youngest  of  a 
large  family  of  children,  not  two  years  between  any  two  of 
them,  and  I  was  not  wanted,  but  taken  as  an  unavoidable 
result,  and  loved,  I  doubt  not,  but  I  did  not  have  such  a 
welcome  into  existence  as  is  the  birthright  of  every  child. 

"  With  these  wrongs  I  have  struggled  all  my  lifetime. 
How  many  traits  of  character,  how  much  peevishness  and 
fretfulness  have  been  fostered  in  me,  which  physical 
suffering  alone  placed  there !  But  the  great  struggle,  the 
great  battle  of  life,  has  come  upon  me  now.  Physical 
suffering  I  can  bear.  I  had  rather  bear  it  than  to  see  my 
child  enduring  it.  But  this  desii-e  to  be  a  mother  !  Never 
has  any  thing  taken  such  a  complete  possession  of  my  whole 
soul.  It  is  ever  present  in  all  my  daily  life.  A  child,  soul 
of  my  soul,  life  of  my  life,  given  to  me  to  develop !  The 
temptation  is  sometimes  stronger  than  I  can  resist  by  my 
natural  powers  of  conscience.  A  stronger  heart  than  mine 
points  out  the  way,  and  says,  '  He  that  taketh  not  his  cross 
is  not  worthy  of  me.'  I  should  indeed  be  unworthy  the 
name  of  wife  and  mother,  if  I  persisted  in  meeting  this  deep 
want  of  my  being  by  giving  birth  to  a  scrofulous  and  diseased 
child.  This  is  the  greatest  wrong  of  all  which  my  parents 
did  to  me ;  giving  me  such  an  organism  as  to  make  this 
great  struggle  between  affection  and  duty  an  ever-present 
element  of  my  whole  life.  I  never  shall  be  able  to  quench 
the  desire  ;  and  I  should  fail  to  be  a  woman  if  I  did.  Thus 
the  future  looms  up  before  me ;  a  wife  but  not  a  mother ; 
an  intense  longing  for  a  child  to  speak  in  loving  tones, 
the  word  *  Mother ; '  but,  alas !  no  such  word,  from  such 
lips,  can  ever  greet  my  ear,  unless  I  wilfully  trample  upon 
my  sense  of  justice  and  right. 


PB-^^-n 


TRIUMPH   OF   REASON   AND   CONSCIENCE.  131 

**  But,  thank  God  !  I  can  endure  this  trial.  I  can  be  true  to  the 
voice  of  God  in  my  own  soul,  but  I  cannot,  I  will  not  trample 
upon  the  heaven-born  rights  of  my  child.  No  such  terrible 
alternative  which  presents  itself  to  me,  shall  ever  be  presented 
to  a  child  of  mine.  No  suffering,  feeble  infant  of  mine  shall 
wail  out  the  wrong  I  have  done  it,  with  its  cries  of  pain  and 
suffering ;  but,  instead,  a  voice  which  spoke  ages  ago,  and 
which  is  still  ready  to  speak  in  every  human  soul  that  is  true 
to  its  warnings,  speaks  to  me  the  same  precious  words  which 
greeted  one  of  old,  '  This  is  my  beloved  child,  in  whom  I  am 
•well  pleased.'  And  as  I  mount  the  cross  which  my  parents 
in  their  ignorance  reared  for  me,  God  grant  that  this  prayer 
to  heaven  may  come  out  from  the  depths  of  my  soul,  '  Father, 
forgive  them,  for  they  knew  not  what  they  did/ 

"  And  now,  my  friend  !  I  appeal  to  you.  Which  is  the  w\iy 
for  me?  There  are  three  open  before  me.  One  is  to  be  the 
mother  of  a  diseased  child.  Another  is  to  live  with  my 
husband,  in  all  the  horrors  of  a  licensed  prostitution,  —  thus 
desecrating  the  highest  and  holiest  function  of  conjugal  love 
to  the  lowest  of  purposes.  The  other  is  to  be  true  to  my  sense 
of  justice,  and  keep  my  desire  to  be  a  mother,  in  entire  sub- 
jection to  conscience  and  reason,  and  never  yield  to  it,  until  I 
can  honestly  do  so  with  the  assured  hope  that  the  organic 
existence  of  my  child  can  be  begun  and  completed  amid  holy 
influences  and  healthy  surroundings ;  blessed  with  a  deep 
love-nature,  and  a  perfectly  healthy  body,  in  which  its  soul 
can  develop  for  its  eternal  existence.  Under  no  other  condi- 
tions can  I  become  a  mother  ;  and  as  the  wrong  done  to  me, 
by  my  parents,  positively  forbids  all  hope  of  such  conditions, 
I  can  never  enter  into  that  relation.  Priests  profess  to  have 
power  to  give  me  a  license  so  to  do ;  but  a  voice  stronger 
than  thousands  of  priests  thunders  its  warnings  into  my  soul, 
if  I  do. 
^    "  Can  it  be  right  for  a  woman  wilfully  and  knowingly  to 


132  THE   ESIPIRE    OF   THE    MOTHER. 

transmit  to  a  child,  diseases  which  have  been  the  bane  of  her 
life?  Can  it  be  right  for  a  man  to  insist  upon  a  woman's  so 
doing  ? 

"  Is  it  right  for  a  woman  whose  blood  is  filled  with  disease 
to  live  with  a  man  as  her  husband,  knowing  that  she  is  to  be 
compelled  to  give  birth  to  sickly  and  suffering  children? 

"  Which  course  will  result  in  the  most  happiness,  the  one 
that  fights  against,  and  refuses  to  gratify  ^e  deep,  parental 
instincts  of  her  nature,  and  deems  the  law  of  conscience 
stronger  than  the  law  of  maternity  ;  or  the  one  that  lays  her 
sense  of  justice  and  right  upon  the  altar  of  desire,  however 
pure  and  holy  it  may  be  ? 

"  Let  the  experience  which  I  have  written  you  tell  how  I 
have  answered  these  questions.     Am  I  right  or  wrong?        •' 

"  The  blood  of  woman  !  What  a  fearful  state  it  is  in  ?  "What 
can  cleanse  and  purify  it,  and  render  it  fit  to  develop  and 
perfect  the  human  organism  ?  What  salvation  is  there  for 
that  woman,  who,  fighting  the  terrible  battle  between  duty 
and  desire,  yields  to  the  latter,  and  brings  forth  a  living  mon- 
ument to  her  sin  and  wrong !  Or  what  salvation  is  there  for 
her  who,  being  true  to  conscience,  fails  to  obey  that  command 
of  God  to  every  woman  —  '  be  a  mother,'  and  in  the  loneliness 
and  agony  of  her  afflicted  heart,  she  cries  out,  '  My  God,  my 
God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ! '  A  w^ife,  but  not  a  mother  ! 
A  mother,  but  such  only  of  a  sickly  and  diseased  child ! 
Such  must  be  the  condition  of  the  masses  of  our  women. 
What  power  shall  lead  them  to  a  thorough  regeneration,  and 
make  them  what  God  designed  they  should  be  —  healthy 
mothers  of  healthy  children !  Can  you  tell  the  way  ?  Can  you 
point  out  the  balm  and  the  physician  that  can  purify  and 
cleanse  the  blood  of  woman,  and  by  that  means  save  the 
world  from  the  hell  of  disease,  to  body  and  soul,  into  which 
it  is  sinking?" 


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